The goal was to allow the launcher to remain completely undercover while a gunner took a portable sight forward to aim at the targets from a concealed location. A new design emerged, combining the guidance system of the small Vickers Vigilant with a new and highly maneuverable missile to produce Swingfire. They found the link would not work in smoke or dust, making it largely useless on the battlefield. This used a computer to calculate the impact point, sending commands to the missile using an infrared link. The tracking system, similar to the SS.11, proved difficult to use and a new project started under the codename Orange William. ĭuring the same period, the British Army had been developing its own heavyweight long-range weapon with Australia, the Malkara with a range of about 4,000 yards (3,700 m). In the summer of 1958, development of the Dart was cancelled in favour of purchasing the two French designs. While the development of the Dart continued, Nord delivered a workable version of the SS.10, as well as the extended-range SS.11. They then instructed the Redstone Arsenal to develop their own version of the basic concept, which emerged as the SSM-A-23 Dart, a larger design with roughly double the range of the SS.10. Evaluations by the US Army in 1953 concluded it was not ready for operations, but that its progress should be tracked. Development started in 1948 with the first rounds fired in 1952. In France, Nord Aviation's Jean Bastien-Thiry developed an updated version of the X-7 using a solid fuel rocket as the very small and highly portable SS.10.
In the immediate post-war era, the design was picked up by development teams in France and Australia. X-7 was never fully developed before the war ended.
This would greatly improve the effectiveness of infantry anti-tank operations, which at that time were generally based on smaller weapons like the Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck which were limited to ranges on the order of 150 metres (490 ft) in the best case. Originally developed for the Luftwaffe as an anti-bomber weapon, by changing the warhead to one using a high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) design, the new X-7 version made an effective anti-armor weapon with a range of hundreds of metres.
Late in World War II, the German Army began experimenting with modified versions of the Ruhrstahl X-4 wire-guided missile.
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