Ruhrstahl X-7 ''"Rotkäppchen"'' ({{Lang-ger, Rotkäppchen, lit=Little Red Riding Hood) also known as ''Kramer X-7'' or ''Ruhrstahl-Kramer RK 347'' was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

wire-guided A wire-guided missile is a missile that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected between the missile and its guidance mechanism, which is located somewhere near the launch site. As the missile flies, the wires are reeled out behi ...

anti-tank guided missile (now referred to as MCLOS) developed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

by Ruhrstahl AG in 1943, after the

Waffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...

(Army Ordnance Board) placed an urgent order for anti-tank missiles, this project was under the leadership of Dipl.-Ing. Max Otto Kramer. It was essentially a smaller version of the X-4, but was powered by

solid-propellant rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses Rocket propellant#Solid chemical propellants, solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were u ...

History

Since the German anti-tank weapons such as the Panzerfaust and the Panzerschreck were only effective at very short distances, the search was for a weapon that was also effective at longer distances to destroy armored vehicles. In 1943, the Ruhrstahl company received the order from the

to develop the X-7. Ruhrstahl's development was based heavily on the

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

X-4, which had already been successfully tested at the time. The X-7 was powered by two solid-propellant rocket, with the first stage producing 68 kp of thrust, launching the rocket and bringing it to speed. The second stage produced a continuous thrust of 5.5 kp over eight seconds and was intended to bring the missile with the 2.5 kg hollow charge to the target. The maximum range of the X-7 was approximately 1,200 m. On September 21, 1944, seven X-7s were launched for test purposes at the Sennelager Training Area. The testing was to be completed in 1945 and mass production was planned at Ruhrstahl in the Brackwede plant and in the

Neubrandenburg Neubrandenburg (lit. ''New Brandenburg'', ) is a city in the southeast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is located on the shore of a lake called Tollensesee and forms the urban centre of the Mecklenburg Lakeland. The city is famous for its ...

Mechanical Works. A few hundred X-7s were produced, most of which were used for testing. A few examples may have been used on the Eastern Front in the last months of the war in 1945. The X-7 pioneered the further development of anti-tank guided weapons after World War II. France produced a further developed and improved version of the X-7 in 1955 with the

SS.10 The Nord Aviation SS.10 was a MCLOS wire-guided anti-tank missile designed by the French engineer Jean Bastien-Thiry. In American service, the missile was called the MGM-21A. The missile entered service in 1955 with the French Army. It was use ...

, the development of which in turn significantly influenced the following and better-known

SS.11 The SS.11, or AS.11, known as AGM-22 in American service, is a French manual command to line of sight wire-guided anti-tank missile manufactured by Nord Aviation. The missile entered service with the French Army in 1956. Production of the SS.1 ...

Specifications

* Type: anti-tank missile * Guidance system: wire-guided * Length: 0.95 m * Wingspan: 0.60 m * Diameter: 0.15 m * Engine: 2× WASAG 109-506 solid rocket fuel engine * Maximum speed: 360 km/h * Range: 1,2 km * Warhead: 2.5 kg * Fuse: impact fuse * Operators:

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

Bibliography

* Roger Ford: ''Germany's Secret Weapons of World War II''. Nebula,

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition and ...

br>3-89555-087-6
* Josef Stemmer: ''Raketenantriebe (Rocket engines)''. Swiss printing and publishing house AG. Zurich, 1952.

External links

at the Nevington War Museum. Anti-tank guided missiles Wire-guided missiles Surface-to-surface missiles