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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 2384.PDF
1332 FLIGHT International. 7 October 1978 sight with Hot, and the French TRT/SAT consortium is developing similar equipment for helicopters and land forces from 1981. Mid-life improvements being studied for the mid-1980s include a more lethal warhead to counter advances in armour technology, and a modified grain for the rocket motor to provide more thrust Euromissile has reduced Hot's unit cost by some 10 per cent in real terms since it lost the British Army competition two years ago, but the weapon is still more than £7,000. Aerospatiale claims, how ever, that when "wholerlife" costs are considered, Hot is up to 3 • 5 times as cost-effective as some of its competitors. Aerospatiale/MBB Milan More than 70,000 Milans have been ordered by some 17 customers so far, with 67 per cent going for export. The missile is used by infantry and can be mounted on virtually any military vehicle. The German Army, for example, deploys the weapon with paratroop battalions (mounted on the 0-75-tonne Kraka vehicle), rifle battalions (on the M113 APC) and armoured infantry battalions (Marder APCs). Thermal-imaging night sights developed by SAT/Eltro, TRT/Siemens and Marconi Space and Defence Systems are scheduled to undergo a "shoot- off" early next year to decide which will be adopted as standard for Milan. Contenders will be awarded points for performance, weight, the logistic support required and other factors, although there is also a heavy political influ ence. Production work will be.carried out in all three countries (France, Germany and Britain), whichever night sight is selected. Mid-life improvements similar to those proposed for Hot will be introduced with Milan in the mid- 1980s. British Aerospace Swingfire Development of Swingnre is continuing, and recent improvements could well result in a new lease of life for the weapon. Swingfire is available for export in five versions. The British Army and Belgian Army operate the Alvis FV102 Striker, one of the CVR(T) (Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance [Tracked]) range. Striker carries five Swingfires in a launcher which is elevated from the rear of the hull to fire the weapons, plus five spare rounds stored inside. It could be upgunned by adding a further five-round bin on top of the existing launcher; this would add only 14in to the vehicle's height and would require little or no changes to the elevation hydraulics. The Egyptian Army operates Beeswing—a four-round Swingfire launcher mounted on a Land Rover; the missiles Milan mounted on a Kraka collapsible truck, one of three vehicles which the German Army equips with this weapon. The Milan firing post can be attached to simple supports on other small vehicles such as jeeps and Land Rovers are fired in situ, or the launcher pallet can be demounted and placed on the ground. The sighting and missilercontrol equipment used in Striker, and the separated sight which allows an operator to control missiles while up to 100m from the launchers in Striker or Beeswing, are heavy and comparatively cumbersome. British Aerospace has there fore developed a lightweight sighting and guidance station (SGS)—previously known as the Mk III sight—which incorporates new optics and control electronics. Although the separated sight in Striker and Beeswing controls the missile in flight, most of the electronics required to do this are fitted in the vehicle. The SGS, however, is completely self-contained. A periscope has been fitted to aid operator concealment, and the optics have magnifications of X 10 and X2 (com pared with X10 and XI in the previous sights) so that medium-range targets can be engaged without the magnifi cation having to be altered. The SGS weighs 15-2kg—only slightly more than the 12-5kg of the normal separation sight—and is, connected to the launcher by a lightweight separation cable and drum weighing 8 • 2kg, compared with 14-5kg previously. The unit is powered by its own dry batteries, making it independent of vehicle supplies. SGS has two applications: light Air Transportable (LAT) Swingfire and new armoured-vehicle installations. LAT Swingfire comprises a lightweight four-round launcher pallet (263kg complete, compared with 485kg for the four- round pallet and control equipment used in Beeswing) plus two spare rounds mounted on a small vehicle such as the Somerton Rayner Saboteur. The design was proved by 20 firings last autumn and is now ready for production. LAT Swingfire costs only about £120,000, excluding the vehicle (which itself is no more expensive than a single missile), and the British Army has shown interest in adopting the combination. An SGS can also be carried in an armoured fighting vehicle, replacing the standard separation sight, and the compactness of the new control electronics allows Swing fire to be added to an existing armoured vehicle rather than requiring a specialised anti-tank vehicle such as Striker. Such an arrangement is being proposed for Scor pion, the member of the GVR(T) family which carries a 76mm gun and which has notched up large export sales.
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