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Aviation History
1980
1980 - 2087.PDF
464 FLIGHT International, 2 August (980 Anti-tank 10 Argentina The Argentine Armed Forces Scientific and Technical Research Centre is reported to have developed an anti tank missile for service with the Argentine Army; it may be based on the MBB Cobra. International Euromissile Hot A heavy, long-range anti-tank missile designed to arm a wide variety of existing and specialised vehicles and helicopters. About 30,000 have been ordered, and production is running at 800 a month. Hot is equipping the French Army's SA.341F Gazelle helicopters and the German Army's SPZ Jaguar 1 tank destroyer. The German Army will receive a total of 316 SPZs and is also fitting Hot to its PAH-1 (BO105) helicopters. The French Army's primary Hot ground vehicle will be the four-wheeled Saviem VAB fitted with the Mephisto firing installation, this combination replacing AMX13 tanks armed with SS.ll. Mephisto com prises a four-round launcher, which is retracted when not in use and which can be rotated through 360°, a stabilised periscopic sight and the Hot guidance equipment; eight reload missiles are carried within the vehicle. France has ordered 160 SA.342M Hot-armed Gazelles. Other Hot installations can include the AMX10P light tank fitted with a Lancelot four-round turret and contain ing ten reloads; the Panhard VCR/VTH M3B six-wheeled vehicle carrying a UTM 800 turret, with four missiles ready to fire and a further ten reloads. The SA.342L uprated Gazelle, with an M334 sight; and the SA.361H Dauphin, which is fitted with the M397 sight and eight missile launchers. A night sight using the Hector infra-red camera in the Venus stabilised sight has been selected to equip Hot-armed Dauphins for export. Euromissile has studied alternative interchangeable warheads to fit Hot, in cluding an anti-ship type which will penetrate 12mm of steel at an incidence of 65° and an anti-personnel flechette head. Potential overseas customers have expressed interest in both develop ments. Operators French Army (SA.341—four rounds; VAB—four rounds), German Army (SPZ—single launcher fed by eight-round magazine, 20 reloads; BO105 —six rounds), Egypt (SA.342 Gazelle), Kuwait (SA.342), Syria (SA.342), Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia? China reported negotiating. Euromissile Milan The Milan weapon system comprises three elements: the round of ammunition, the firing post and the support and monitoring equip ment. The round of ammunition con sists of the missile in its launch tube, which is handled and stored as ordinary ammunition, requiring no checking before firing. The firing post consists of a sighting and guidance assembly mounted on a firing ramp. The missiles are assembled by Aero- Euromissile Hot-equipped Aerospatiale Gazelle spatiale, with some electronic com ponents being supplied by MBB. The German company is also responsible for the tripod/launcher, glassfibre launch tube and warhead. British Aerospace is also building launchers and missiles under licence in a £200 million pro gramme. Present production rate is some 1,600 a month and more than 90,000 rounds have been ordered by about 19 cus tomers. Milan is mounted on the Ger many Army's Kraka collapsible trucks and will be fitted to the French Army's VAB wheeled vehicles, using a Creusot- Loire turret; other possible platforms include the Lohr VP90 and VPX110 and the Beherman Demoen BDX. The TRT/Siemens Mira 2 thermal-imaging night sight has been selected for use with Milan and will enter production in 1983. The specification calls for targets to be detected at a range of 2,000m and engaged at 1,200m. The figures claimed for Mira 2 are 3,200m, and 1,500m respectively. Operators French Army, German Army, Belgian Army, British Army, Turkey (6,250 rounds, 483 firing posts), Spanish Army, Syria (at least 2,000 rounds), Greece, Lebanese Army, Egyp tian Army, Somalia, South Africa, plus three others. International European third-generation weapon France, Germany and Britain have agreed to collaborate on development of a third-generation anti-tank missile to replace Swingfire, Hot and Tow in the late 1980s. The weapon would be the responsibility of EMDG (Euromissile Dynamics Group), a consortium com prising Aerospatiale, MBB and British Aerospace. General requirements in clude long range and probably a super sonic cruise speed, although the originally specified "fire and forget" capability may be abandoned in order to reduce costs. Germany BGT/AEG/Diehl Bussard A proposed 120mm laser-guided mortar bomb being studied by the German companies Bodenseewerk Geratetechnik. AEG- Telefunken and Diehl Elektronik. Bus- sard Would be fitted with flip-out wings and control surfaces. Italy Breda Meccanica Sparviero A semi automatic system being developed for service in the 1980s. The complete sys tem weighs 60kg and guidance is by an infra-red system developed by Officdne Galileo. It can also be operated from light helicopters. Japan Kawasaki/Mitsubishi KAM-9 TAN SSM A semi-automatic missile which is re placing KAM-3D in the anti-tank and counter-landing-craft roles. The weapon is known as the Type 79 Heavy MAT in JGSDF service. Yugoslavia An anti-tank missile is reported to be under development. Sweden Bofors KB56 Bofors is working on an anti-tank missile for the Swedish Army. This may be a fire-and-forget weapon, perhaps with infra-red homing. Switzerland As part of the industrial offset asso ciated with the Swiss order for F-5Es, Martin Marietta has signed an agree ment with Oerlikon-Biihrle to assist the latter in developing an anti-tank missile with some surface-to-air capability. The weapon will use Martin Marietta's modular Flir guidance system. Taiwan During a National Day parade on Octo ber 10, 1978, an armoured-car-mounted anti-tank missile was displayed and was claimed to be of local origin. United Kingdom British Aerospace Swingfire A heavy, long-range anti-tank weapon, Swingfire initially equipped the Ferret scout car and FV438 armoured personnel carrier and more recently has been introduced in Striker, one of the CVR(T) range of
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