The Germans had experimented with wire-guided anti-tank missiles during World War Two, but the idea of creating a fast, mobile tank-buster by mounting such missiles onto a wheeled vehicle almost certainly dates back to the mid-1950s. Two Australian-built Malkara wire-guided anti-tank missiles were placed on a hydraulic launch arm fitted to a modified Humber‘Pigl
In the UK, Malkara was followed by the experimental Orange William missile which, in the early 1960s, was superseded by the originally Vickers-designed Vigilant. Eventually produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), Vigilant was the first reliable British wire-guided anti-tank missile. The weapon was a lightweight man-portable unit with a range of 1,500yds (1,372m). The shaped-charge warhead was capable of penetrating the armour of most main battle tanks of the period. The missile was fired remotely using a combined sight/controller on a separation cable, the missile being guided onto the target by signals fed through a cable in response to movements of the joystick control by the gunner.
From around 1963, Vigilants had been turret mounted in pairs on Ferret reconnaissance vehicles making an excellent ‘shoot and scoot’ weapon. At the 1966 exhibition of military vehicles held at Chertsey, a long-wheelbase Series II was demonstrated with a pair of Vigilants on a traversable tubular-steel launcher mounted in the cargo area. Three more missiles were carried on the launcher frame and it was claimed that there was space for carrying more missiles behind the centre bulkhead. Designated ‘truck, general service, guided weapon’, it was claimed that minimal modification was required to prepare the vehicle for the missile installation.
World History
