The LAW 80 (Light Anti-armour Weapon 80), regularly referred to as LAW 94 in British service, is a man-portable, disposable

anti-tank Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first deve ...

weapon previously used by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

and a few other militaries.

Description

The weapon consists of an extendable launch tube with an integrated

spotting rifle A spotting rifle or ranging gun is a small-calibre rifle used as a sighting device for artillery. The ballistics of the spotting rifle are matched to those of the artillery piece, so that if a shot from the spotting rifle lands on the target, it m ...

and 1× sight. The spotting rifle has five rounds of ammunition, and is ballistically matched to the

rocket A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...

. The rounds it uses are quite unusual, consisting of a 9 mm tracer bullet loaded in a necked up 7.62mm NATO

shell casing A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile ( bullet, shot, or slug), a propellant substance (usually either smokeless powder or black powder) and an ignition device ( primer) within a metall ...

, with a .22 Hornet blank mounted in the base of the larger case, providing the

propellant A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or other motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicles, the e ...

charge. Upon firing, the .22 cartridge case pushes out of the back of the 7.62 mm casing, unlocking the

breech Breech may refer to: * Breech (firearms), the opening at the rear of a gun barrel where the cartridge is inserted in a breech-loading weapon * breech, the lower part of a pulley block * breech, the penetration of a boiler where exhaust gases leav ...

of the spotting rifle in a form of primer actuation. To launch the rocket the firer removes the large protective end caps and extends the rear of the launch tube, opens the sight, and moves the arming lever to "armed". The weapon is then in spotting rifle mode. To fire the rocket, the firer moves a charge lever forward with his firing hand thumb. The

rocket motor A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordance ...

burns out before it leaves the launch tube, the resulting blast being directed rearwards from the launch tube. The rocket then coasts to the target, arming itself after it has passed a certain arming distance. The

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

is a

HEAT In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...

and could penetrate of

rolled homogeneous armour Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) is a type of vehicle armour made of a single steel composition hot-rolled to improve its material characteristics, as opposed to layered or cemented armour. Its first common application was in tanks. After World ...

at 90 degrees, as was taught to soldiers trained on the weapon system in the British Army, Royal Navy (Royal Marines) and

RAF Regiment The Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regiment) is part of the Royal Air Force and functions as a specialist corps. Founded by royal warrant in 1942, the Corps carries out soldiering tasks relating to the delivery of air power. Examples of such ta ...

. It was also taught that sloped, composite and

reactive armour Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ener ...

, would reduce the penetration and would be an important factor when selecting the aiming point.

Specifications

* Contractor:

Hunting Engineering Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/ antler, ...

* Calibre: 94 mm * Launcher length: ** Firing mode: 1.5 m ** Carrying mode: 1 m * Weight: ** Carrying weight: 10 kg ** Shoulder weight: 9 kg ** Projectile weight: 4.6 kg * Dispersion: approx 1 mil * Warhead arming range: 10 to 20 m * Effective range: 20 to 500 m * Fuze: ** Type:

Piezo-electric Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The word ''p ...

impact fuze A contact fuze, impact fuze, percussion fuze or direct-action (D.A.) fuze (''UK'') is the fuze that is placed in the nose of a bomb or shell so that it will detonate on contact with a hard surface. Many impacts are unpredictable: they may involv ...

, shrub and foliage proof ** Graze angle: ≤ 10° * Temperature range: −46 °C to +65 °C * Rear danger area: < 20 m * Shelf life: 10 years

Operators

Current operators

* * Jones, Richard D. ''Jane's Infantry Weapons 2009/2010''. Jane's Information Group; 35 edition (January 27, 2009). . *

Past operators

* : Initially adopted in the early 1990s, replacing the L14A1 84 mm Carl Gustav

recoilless rifle A recoilless rifle, recoilless launcher or recoilless gun, sometimes abbreviated "RR" or "RCL" (for ReCoilLess) is a type of lightweight artillery system or man-portable launcher that is designed to eject some form of countermass such as propel ...

and M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon (Rocket 66mm HEAT L1A1), it was withdrawn on safety grounds in favour of the

AT-4 CS The AT4 is a Swedish unguided, man-portable, disposable, shoulder-fired recoilless anti-tank weapon built by Saab Bofors Dynamics (previously Bofors Anti-Armour Systems and before that FFV Ordance). The AT4 is not considered a rocket lau ...

and eventually the

FGM-148 Javelin The FGM-148 Javelin, or Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M), is an American-made portable anti-tank missile system in service since 1996, and continuously upgraded. It replaced the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service. Its fire- ...

anti-tank missile and

NLAW The Saab Bofors Dynamics NLAW (pronounced: ''"N-LAW"'', ), also known as the MBT LAW or RB 57, is a fire-and-forget, lightweight shoulder-fired, and disposable (single-use) line of sight (LOS) missile system, designed for infantry use. The mi ...

Addermine

Addermine is an acoustic sensor system which uses the LAW 80 as a kill mechanism to create an anti-armour

off-route mine An anti-tank mine (abbreviated to "AT mine") is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles. Compared to anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines typically have a much larger explosive c ...

. It can also be command detonated from up to 200 m away, or 2 km via a laser optical link.

Notes

References

* ''Jane's Infantry Weapons 2005-2006'' * ''Jane's Infantry Weapons 1991-1992''

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20040927085242/http://www.army.mod.uk/equipment/pw/pw_law.htm
www.armedforces.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Law 80 Anti-tank rockets Anti-tank guided missiles of the United Kingdom Cold War weapons of the United Kingdom Military equipment introduced in the 1980s