Wire Guided Tank Killer | Swingfire | Anti-Tank Chats 

Hi Tank Nuts! What do you think of Chris' latest video?

We were always told that the 4km range was important because most villages on the north german plain are less than 4km apart and so when necessary you could fire on armour leaving one village from the cover of the next one.

This guy is ace. Explains topics extremely clearly. 👌

Chris is just a phenomenal presenter. It's like being back in the day, listening to an officer giving an Intel report. I'm sure I unconciously brace to attention when Chris begins his videos 😂

My wife was part of the guidance software development team working for Ferranti at the time. When, back in the early '70s, I was a REME Vehicle Mechanic, I showed her the inside of a 438, she couldn't believe how all the control equipment had been massively reduced in size from the big boxes she'd been used to seeing during the R&D phase!

That missile taking a right hander just after launching was pretty terrifying.

As others have said, the presenter is incredible, couldn't believe 20 minutes had passed.

The transition to the inside of the FV438 was smooth

In Sir John Hackett's "World War III" he described a battlefield covered in a spider's web of copper wires from wire-guided ATMs as NATO met the massed Soviet armoured attack across the Fulda Gap. Those were the days.

I am reminded of a line from a Martin Caidin novel: "All the shrimp in the ocean can't block wire transmission." Wire guidance isn't perfect but jamming it is basically impossible.

The combination of many quality props and exhibits, copious pertinent historical footage, and a good script well delivered really makes for great content.

Well that was a blast from the past. I ran the Swingfire repair section at 35 Base Workshops REME (Old Dalby) during the late 80s. By that time FV438 was going out of service and the thermal imaging combined sight was being fitted to Striker. My hardest job was arranging sufficient serviceable parts to keep up with the production target. The FV438 was provided with a portable thermal imaging sight, but it was impractical in use, due to it's weight. I believe this is why FV438 was discontinued. The vehicle mounted Hensoldt Sight was never replaced with a thermal imaging sight. FV102 Striker fitted with Swingfire saw action in Gulf War 1 and the feedback was that it worked well. One operator was reputed to have made 5 kills out of 5. I can't confirm that. I left before the ground control and launch equipment was updated to further automate the control of the missile in flight. It would be interesting to see the system again after all these years. Incidentally, the simulator display tube is missing from the bottom of your Hensoldt sight. Thanks for sharing this great video.

There was a defense publication in the late '80s that talked about how the wire-guided missile was un-interdictable. They also included a cartoon of an infantryman, armed with scissors, cutting the wire as it streamed over him. I still laugh thinking about it.......

they eventually coated the wire in wax so the missile could go over water and still operate! Brilliantly presented.

As a Retired US Army Infantry NCO who started his career as an 11H - Heavy Anti-Armor Weapons Infantryman - I’ve spent a lot of time adding more skill sets to my duty and foreign AT systems have always interested me. I never had a lot of data about UK systems so this is a great discussion! Our TOW system has numerous generations and subsequently, more options due to various missiles in our remaining inventory. And although I can’t speak for the method of penetration for their warhead, the TOW uses a HEAT type main charge with a copper cone. This copper cone will invert and form the molten penetrator that goes through insanely thick armor that most won’t believe if I mention it here so I won’t. The UK system is similarly controlled like the Soviet system where the gunner “flies” the missile to the target while keeping track of the missile via a bright burning flare at the rear of the missile but I doubt that’s the primary method of control. The TOW uses both IR and thermal beacons that the day sight is constantly scanning and tracking the IR beacon while the thermal night sight (AN/TAS-4B) is tracking the thermal beacon and relaying the location to the Missile Guidance Set (MGS) so if the primary IR beacon is lost as a result of either failure or enemy counter actions, the thermal beacon is switched as the primary beacon within a split second and continues the missile to target. I’d have to agree with the missile wires spread all over the battlefield as a result of use. The TOW wire can cut through human skin if you try to recover the wire and hit a snag so you must be careful to not use hands to do the task, we’d often use a piece of wood to roll it up. The TOW will fly its full 4,000 meter flight in 14 seconds so it’s a fast missile. And with the newer upgrades, it has the ability for a top attack option which allows us to punch through the thinner armor plating on tanks with two tandem shape charges.

That 90° turn is wild. Edit: The closing question about whether Swingfire would have worked if used can probably be answered by the fact I can absolutely imagine Toyota and Mitsubishi trucks with bed mounted launchers in Ukraine right now. The ability to hide the vehicle in a ditch or behind a building and have the operator hidden 100 meters away is invaluable.

The ability to remote the sighting unit gave a great advantage in concealment, the missile could literally pop up from dead ground or from behind a small building. As to it being wire guided, it was unlikely to be jammed by electronic counter measures.

As a former Bundeswehr TOW & MILAN Gunner it makes me wonder why we never got the Swingfire instead. The possibility to launch from behind cover around corners would have made so much more sense for the Airborne Brigades and their Kraka / Wiesel launchers (which was my job).

I remeber trying out to be an operator when Swingfire was introduced to my regiments Recce troop to be mounted on 432's. At the time I'd never come across thumb control for anything, let alone a missile, and can truthfully say I was hopeless, despite being the 2nd best gunner in the regiment. Of the three test firings(using some type of simulator) I used up the full 32, I'm sure it was 32, seconds of flight time and got nowhere near the target. Truth to tell half the time I couldn't see the target! Needless to say I never got a transfer to Recce troop 🙂

I had great fun in a Cold War miniatures game once long ago with Swingfire. I used the over the hill firing ability to take on Soviet tanks on the attack. The player running them did not sight the missile inbound so the first thing he knew was four of his tanks blew up. I think I took out twelve before he finally spotted a missile inbound. The launch vehicles were behind the hill while the controllers were below the military crest on the forward slope.

So I was part of the quality assurance of the MOD that use to test Swingfire missiles. I remember in the 80’s driving to BAE Stevenage and walking round the factory seeing the missives in various stages of assembly and the wire spool test area. The electronics didn’t last long which never gave you much time to carryout all your tests but was probably understandable given the missile either hit or missed !

I'm always really impressed by Chris' delivery. His pacing is just right for me to absorb the information without getting bored, his accent is easy to understand even out here on the Canadian Prairie, and his ability to seamlessly continue dialog through multiple setups is just amazing!

There is a video of an Iraqi tank getting hit by swingfire. The turret went ballistic

Good video, great explanation. 👍🏻 I always remember my Dinky 'STRIKER' Swingfire-firing realistic 1970's die-cast toy! 😃

Hi I was with D Bty 3RHA in Bergan Hohne Germany. I was in was in G Troop , we had the Stricker I think I fired it 4 or 5 times. You say that the floatation kit was never used, it was I was a crontroler when we crossed the river Wasser using it on crausdaer 80. There was a Sgt from 9/12 or 14/20 who broke his leg when an object pierced the floatatin kit on his vehicle and injured him. That was the one and only time we used it, after that it was removed.

A thumb joystick - the most imprecise device to control anything yet alone to guide a missile over the distance of several kilometres. Or is it just my thumbs? Excellent programme from Chris as always.

Chris really presents well and I enjoy all the videos he is apart of. Thank you.

Chris actually taught me in first school for a while, was sad when he left to go back to the Dorchester museum’s. Really top bloke! Love his videos!

It has always surprised me that no other ATGM has ever really incorporated Swingfire's off-axis launch capability that I can discern. It seems like an extremely useful design, that offers tremendous protection to the launcher, vehicle, and crew. I really wonder if there is a reason that capability isn't considered worthwhile in keeping? It doesn't seem to impact the minimum range of the missile, nor the maximum range.

Not only are you all preserving some amazing world history, the content you create is incredible!

The Ferret Swingfire vehicle is particularly devious and sneaky when attacking from behind a berm. Makes me wonder why the platform was not named Ninja

Sudenly realise most of the photos of this system implied to me to be misfires were actually... swingfires.

Another greatly entertaining anti-tank chat. I think the camerawork, editing and composition is also commendable. Thank you for taking the time to make this educational program.

Not sure about the dates transferred to RAC, as I was in a aGuided Missile Troop with Mk5 Ferret in 15/19 Kings Royal Hussars in Tidworth in 1976. Had great fun firing Swingfire. You could actually fly them over fences and trees on the way to target if you knew what you were up to. Also great fun firing them with the separated sight, especially when you were forward of the Ferret, as the missile was programmed to fly directly over the remote sight before it came into your line of sight. Very unnerving first time you did it !!!

Just shows the weather patterns of the British isles “rain, fog, and even bright sunlight” as if the occurrence of sunlight is so very rare. Keep up the amazing work, I need to get more models soon!

Small correction. More recent Javelin iterations with upgraded CLU do match the 4km range of Swingfire

Fantastic video. I was in the Canadian Army during the latter part of the cold war; the Blowpipe missile (air defense) had a similar 'auto-gathering' feature and was joystick guided to the target.

I love this series. Thank you so much for putting it together!

Again,thank you for a very good documentary. Really apreciate the balance of details with ways I can actually understand it.

Great video and a nice trip down memory lane. As an armoured recce troop leader in the late eighties and early nineties I spent some time as “the electric darts team captain” in my squadron. An impressive missile to fire on ranges, but some of the practise stock tended to be a bit old and if the gyros got stuck on launch you had quite a hairy few minutes when the missile went askew. All in all though, a tremendous weapon for it’s day and I would not want to have been on the business end of that warhead. Never fired one in anger but on exercise, the things we hated when siting the Strikers were electric pylons. They would have really spoilt your day and would have been the first thing to have been blown down for real. Happy days and thanks for the reminder. JD

Chris is just the right person for this. Thank you Tank Museum! A great presentation.

If my memory serves me right, the swingfire had lead ballast for future expansion.

TOW didn't have a nylon covered guide wire, and did silly things of the operator flew the missile over water.

I was a controller in the Striker version of the swingfire from 1977 to 1981in the Belgian army. I fired 15 missiles and never missed. If I remember correctly we had a higher rate of succes than the British controllers because our simulators were more sensitive adjusted. Firing the swingfire was a blast. Inside you did hear the gyroscope engaging just before the roaring of the rocket motor. I think the max range was 4100m. We went shooting in England somewhere. Can't remember where exactly but it was somewhere near Salisbury?

Delighted to see this from Chris, an excellent presenter and an wholly credible speaker on these subjects.

Great video as always. Thanks for all your hard work.

Mr.Copson is another great host the Museum has provided us enthusiasts, and he was the perfect choice to succeed Mr.Fletcher. These videos have always felt like they are talking to the viewer as an equal; and not down at us like young school children on a field trip.

Wow. Such professional quality : presentator, editing, explanation of scientific concepts, historical facts. Just wow. Keep up the excellent work.

Great video, thanks Chris and team.

Best yet Chris. Not one um. When I started out in community radio the "um" where everywhere. They soon disappeared as I gained confidence and experience. Thanks for your great videos. Makes me want to get back to the UK and revisit the museum agian, and I'm in Australia.

I really appreciate the use of the red color coding of what is being described. No other channel does that. Good on you Mate.

Thanks, that was a great presentation!

Nicely explained and a top notch presentation Chris!

Really great video 👍🏻. Thank’s for making. 🇬🇧

Excellent video. Thank you.

Sir, you're doing a great job.

Good video, which left me with a better impression of Swingfire. Best feature? That automatic gathering to the LOS.

Excellent presentation, very interesting. Thanks a lot.

Great video! nice Swingfire! greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Facinating presentation. Packed so much in to such a short time.

Fantastic presentation. Keep up the good work.

Great video, and I'm happy to see an FC101 on this channel :) 09:40

One thing not mentioned is that the stryker and probably the other vehicles had their own onboard training simulator.

Absolutely love your videos mate

Fascinating and so well presented and explained

Brilliant presentation

I'm glad it's not just me that wondered what would happen with all the wires. Swingfire! Anti-Tank missile system, with in-built tripwire layer to slow advancing enemy troops! Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice firing a bunch of these things. I'm also assuming when it was new, how that bit worked would have been classified, which meant some poor soldier had to police up all 20km of cable, assuming the vehicle had fired all 5 missiles. Right lads, I need 5 volunteers for a 4km run!

Excellent presentation.

Outstanding, thank you!

Excellent video. Thank you

Superb presentation!

Is it weird I want this guy in my house so I can get these talks whenever

11/10, excellent. Thank you very much, really appreciated.

Great presentation, thanks

Splendid video thank you.

Absolutely brilliant briefing by Chris. It makes a huge difference hearing from an actual 'Cold' Warrior about the lit that was used in the late 20th C.

Tank you for making this video 😛

Fantastic presentation.. keeps me really interested..

Enjoyable educational experience so thanks to the best museum in the world which no one can do better!

Chris Copson is bang on as David Fletchers successor. He brings authority and excellent clarity to the subject. All he needs to do now is grow the moustache ;)

Makes it educational not just entertainment. Rare on the internet!

I didnt actually know how NBC protection worked before this thanks.

Brilliant Chris

Awesome presentation! Tanks!

Great video and great explanation.

I recall a time when a company (J Bull Electrical!) back in the day (1990s?) listed spools of the command wire for sale...

Great talk about a rock solid system.

Thanks for the vid.

Pros and cons of wire-guidance. When talking about guidance, then one one side, using radio does away with the wire getting tangled (and needed in the first place), however using wire guidance makes the guidance system immune to radio jamming (unless said jamming is the EMP from a nuke, but in that case it doesn't matter anyway.....) Even the Germans in WW2 had this dilemma. Their Firtz-X guided bomb used radio control, but soon the allies found out which frequency was used and could effectively jam the control signals causing bombs to go 'dumb' and miss.

As . a long ago TOW/Dragon repair tech kudos to the engineers who so greatly improved the BMG71's basic idea. I mean TOW has proven to be (generation after generation) to be an excellent system BUT the UK opted to get rid of a launcher tube that required fiberglass (glass fiber for those in the UK) refinish repair every X firings. Do not get me started on Dragon the training system for had a built in flaw that meant the first time a soldier (even special forces such as Army Rangers), live fired it was very likely the round wound bounce on the ground en route to the target leading to flying above the target.

I think it was and is still a heck of a lot harder to jam wire guided than radio guided self seeking. That only matters if the other side has the jamming equipment needed to get the job done.

My dad trained on swing fire. I have some Polaroids of some missile variants and the console used for training. Sadly he is suffering from vascular dementia now.

brilliantly done. this easily reads as something the BBC might have produced

The best video about guided missile...ever...

I read that it was used against Iraqi armour in the 1st Gulf war.

Impressive system indeed.

Excellent narrator he needs a raise

I spent the majority or my time as an Anti tanker in the Royal Marines so this video was very interesting to see some of the earlier missle tech

Nice to see the 16th/5th cap badge, Britain's premier cavalry regt

Love Chris!