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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1498.PDF
312 FLIGHT International, 29 A ugust 1963 Missiles and Spaceflight BAC WEAPONS FOR THE ARMY British Aircraft Corporation Ltd is now one of the world's leading manufacturers of missiles, and four major types of guided weapon —all of them of a purely defensive character—are under intensive development at the Corporation's factories engaged in this work at Stevenage, Filton and Cardiff. Two of the BAC missiles are the subject of new photographs on this page, showing weapons of the British Army in use under markedly contrasting conditions. The larger is Thunderbird 1, produced by the Corporation's Guided Weapons Division at Six Hills Way, Stevenage, Hertford shire (formerly the guided-weapons factory of English Electric Aviation Ltd). Thunderbird 1 has for more than two years been the standard surface-to-air missile system of the British Army. It has seen regimental service in both Britain and Germany, but these new photographs show it serving in Aden, where Dragon battery of 37 Regiment, Royal Artillery, are deployed under desert conditions. The other two photographs were taken in Norway in March of this year, during the cold-weather firing trials by the British Army of the Vigilant anti-tank weapon. Vigilant is likewise a product of British Aircraft Corporation (GW) Ltd at Stevenage, although in an anti-tank context mention should also be made of British Aircraft Corporation (AT) Ltd, owned jointly by BAC and Fairey, which is engaged in supporting the Australian-made Malkara missiles of the British Army and developing the Swingfire weapon as a replacement for it. Vigilant is smaller than either Malkara or Swingfire, and has amply borne out its manufacturer's claims of being easier to operate than any other command-guidance anti-tank weapon. After exhaustive trials it was adopted by the Finnish Army, who will operate it under conditions frequently as icy as those pictured here. Deliveries to Finland began earlier this month, and at the recent Armed Forces Day parade in Helsinki Vigilants were seen mounted on Russian-built Gaz light armoured cars. The Vigilants fired during the Norwegian trials were fitted not with the long-awaited British warhead, with long contact probe, but with the Swiss-developed CML head, which is blunter and has a hardened-steel ring which, on oblique strikes, bites into the armour of the target and swings the head round so that the shaped charge has maximum effect. Another point of interest is the manner in which the weapons have been mounted on sledges; they can be fired directly from this position.
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