The FV102 Striker was the anti-tank guided missile carrier in the CVR(T) family and served in 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 Gurkha ...

Overview

FV102 Striker was the

Swingfire Swingfire was a British wire-guided anti-tank missile developed in the 1960s and produced from 1966 until 1993. The name refers to its ability to make a rapid turn of up to ninety degrees after firing to bring it onto the line of the sighting ...

wire-guided

anti-tank missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

carrying member of the

CVR(T) The Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), abbreviated CVR(T), is a family of armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) developed in the 1960s and is in service with the British Army and others throughout the world. They are small, highly mobile, air ...

family. The FV102 Striker was externally very similar to the FV103 Spartan but carried five

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

s in a ready-to-fire bin at the back of the vehicle. Five reload missiles were carried in the vehicle. The bin was elevated to 35° (622mils) for firing. The targeting sight could be demounted and operated at a distance from the vehicle which could remain in cover, even completely screened as the missile can turn up to 90° after launch to come onto the target heading. The missiles were originally steered by

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

control using manual command to line of sight (

MCLOS Manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) is a method for guiding guided missiles. With an MCLOS missile, the operator must track the missile and the target simultaneously and guide the missile to the target. Typically the missile is steered with a ...

). This was later updated to the semi-automatic command to line of sight (

SACLOS Semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) is a method of missile command guidance. In SACLOS, the operator has to continually point a sighting device at the target while the missile is in flight. Electronics in the sighting device and/or th ...

) system where the controller merely sights the target. Secondary armament was a

general purpose machine gun A general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) is an air-cooled, usually belt-fed machine gun that can be adapted flexibly to various tactical roles for light and medium machine guns. A GPMG typically features a quick-change barrel design calibered f ...

Development

The Striker was developed for the

to fire the Swingfire missile. The first production vehicles were delivered in 1975 and used in British Army service by the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

anti-tank guided missile batteries. The vehicle initially was powered by the

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

J60 4.2-litre 6-cylinder

petrol Gasoline (; ) or petrol (; ) (see ) is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines (also known as petrol engines). It consists mostly of organic c ...

engine - the same as used by several Jaguar cars. This was then replaced by a Cummins BTA 5.9

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

, as used in British Army

FV107 Scimitar The FV107 Scimitar is an armoured tracked military reconnaissance vehicle (sometimes classed as a light tank) used by the British Army. It was manufactured by Alvis in Coventry. It is very similar to the FV101 Scorpion, but mounts a high-ve ...

s, under the CVR(T) life extension programme.

Service history

The Striker entered service in 1976 with the

of the

BAOR There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine (BAOR). Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War and the other after the Second World War. Both formations had areas of responsibility located ...

, but then was transferred to the

Royal Armoured Corps The Royal Armoured Corps is the component of the British Army, that together with the Household Cavalry provides its armour capability, with vehicles such as the Challenger 2 Tank and the Scimitar Reconnaissance Vehicle. It includes most of the ...

where they served in

formation reconnaissance regiment The Formation Reconnaissance Regiment is one of two organisations currently provided by cavalry regiments of the British Army. Until recently, it was known as the Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. Formation reconnaissance regiments, as the name ...

s. On 24 March 2003, during the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...

, a Striker destroyed an Iraqi

T-55 The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced in the years following the Second World War. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhny Tagil by the end of 1945.Steven Zaloga, T-54 and T-55 Main Battle Tank ...

tank with an anti-tank missile.Rossiter, Mike, '' Target Basra '', Corgi, 2009 , p.248 The FV102 Striker was withdrawn from British Army service as the Swingfire missile was replaced by the

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with the ...

missile in mid-2005.

Additional specification

* Ground clearance: 0.35 m * Ammunition carried: 10 Swingfire missiles, 7.62 mm NATO x 3,000 rounds. * Chassis manufactured by Alvis Vehicles Limited, Telford, Shropshire, West Midlands, England, UK

Operators

Former operators

* *

References

External links

FV102 Striker - Arcane Fighting Vehicles

{{Fire support vehicles Tank destroyers Cold War armoured fighting vehicles of the United Kingdom Military vehicles introduced in the 1970s