ATGMs of the Cold War

[Logan Hartke]

Here's one possibility. It may not have had quite the same capabilities, but I'm sure a variant this simple would be quite a lot cheaper, to say nothing of NATO interoperability.



Cheers,

Logan

[Weaver]

I do wonder if the British army had bought TOW instead of Swingfire what Striker would have been like? would they have goten it instead of Milan as well or was milans portability more a factor?

Milan's a class down in terms of range and size.

TOW, HOT and Swingfire are all 'heavy' ATGWs that need a minimum of a multi-crew launcher if not a vehicle (HOT always needs a vehicle) to operate and have ranges around the 4000m mark. Milan is roughly bazooka-sized, can be operated by a two-man infantry team, and has a range of 2500m. It's American equivalent was Dragon, rather than TOW.

Putting a turreted Milan launcher on a light AFV is pretty much a waste, because you lose the concealability but don't gain the protection of stand-off range. The most you should do is give the MILAN team the option of firing it from a QD pintle mount on the vehicle (soft or armoured) that they ride around in just in case, but their preferred MO should always be to dismount with it and set up a proper concealed position.

TOW and Swingfire ground mounts are about as "man-portable" as a 120mm mortar: you can do it, but you wouldn't want to carry it far and a vehicle is a WAY better option. HOT doesn't have a 'pop charge' to eject it from the tube and send it downrange before the main motor ignites. Instead it just hot-launches straight from the tube, which is good for decreasing flight time and getting it out of a helo's rotor downwash ASAP, but which also means that it'd burn your face off if you tried to fire it from your shoulder.

Looking at existing HOT/TOW installations, I don't think a Striker or FV.438 would need to be significantly different if it used either. However, since both TOW licencees and Euromissile produce a variety of generic turrets and launchers as well as the missiles themselves, one of those might be adopted instead. VAB-Mephisto (HOT), HOT 3S (Jpz.Rakete), Hammerhead (TOW) and Kaverna Eureka (TOW) are probably the most sophisticated options.

[AS.12]

A few notes on British ATGM procurement:

Hawkswing ( air-launched Swingfire ) was cancelled in 1976 when the army decided to continue with SS.11 until TOW or HOT could be procured.  The explanation was that Hawkswing wasn't SACLOS, to which BAC objected that the army had never required it to be! 

Interestingly BAC considered HOT to be the main rival, as at that time TOW was still fairly short-ranged and the army had rejected it a few years earlier as being too heavy for its limited capability.  In 1978 they then went back on themselves and picked TOW for the Lynx, along with the Hughes M65 sight thereby disappointing French, German AND British industry.

Sight unit for Hawkswing was the Ferranti AF530, which went into limbo for a decade until being adopted for the Gazelle fleet in 1982 as the AF532.  This was modified slightly to fit into the French-developed roof-blister and turret, saving manufacturing costs.  SAAB Helios sight was technically superior but lost on account of mechanical complexity, being servo-stabilised.



Beeswing ( infantry-portable Swingfire ) was proposed for the infantry-portable ATGM requirement, as was BAC's smaller OL535 design from the mid-70s.  Both were rejected in favour of MILAN.  Beeswing was adoped by Egypt, though the even lighter trolley-mounted Golfswing had no success.