The XSSM-A-23 Dart was an

anti-tank guided 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 ...

developed for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

in the 1950s. After protracted development, the missile, similar in design to the French

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 ...

, was cancelled in favor of purchasing the

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 ...

missile.

Design and development

The initial requirement for a guided anti-tank missile, intended for the replacement of

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 ...

s and

Bazooka Bazooka () is the common name for a man-portable recoilless anti-tank rocket launcher weapon, widely deployed by the United States Army, especially during World War II. Also referred to as the "stovepipe", the innovative bazooka was among the ...

s in the role,Ordway and Wakeford 1960, p.USA4 was issued by the U.S. Army in 1951; that November,Hunnicutt 1999, p.176. the Aerophysics Development Corporation responded with a proposal for a wire-guided weapon, similar in concept and configuration to the

missile being developed in France.Jacobs and Whitney 1962, p.44. After evaluating the SS.10 in 1952–53,Parsch 2003 the Army issued a contract for full development of the Aerophysics Development missile, designated SSM-A-23 Dart, in April 1953. The SSM-A-23 was of conventional configuration for an anti-tank missile of the time, having

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly describe ...

wings and stabilizing fins, with

spoileron In aeronautics, spoilerons (also known as spoiler ailerons or roll spoilers) are spoilers that can be used asymmetrically as flight control surfaces to provide roll control. Operation Spoilerons roll an aircraft by reducing the lift of the ...

s providing control; a dual-thrust

solid-propellant rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants ( fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Pe ...

produced by the

Grand Central Rocket Company The Lockheed Propulsion Company was a division of the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation located at 1500 Crafton Avenue in the Mentone, California area northeast of Redlands, California, adjacent to the Santa Ana River, from 1961 to 1975. It developed, ...

provided thrust. The launcher for the missile was mounted on a variant of the

M59 armored personnel carrier The M59 was an American armored personnel carrier that entered service in the spring of 1954 replacing the M75. It had three key advantages over the M75: it was amphibious, had a lower profile, and was considerably cheaper to produce. Productio ...

designated T149; helicopter launching was also considered as a possibility. Guidance was by

manual command to line of sight 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 ...

, the missile operator following a

sodium flare Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isot ...

in the tail of the missile and guiding the missile to the target with commands sent by a wire that spooled from the missile during flight. Due to difficulties experienced in testing with ensuring accuracy, an infrared seeker was proposed for terminal homing. The missile was fitted with a

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, ini ...

warhead intended to defeat the armor of enemy tanks. During development of the Dart, Aerophysics Development was acquired by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation, the purchase taking place in December 1954.

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...

then acquired the company as part of a larger deal with Studebaker-Packard in August 1956.

Operational history

The first launch trials of the XSSM-A-23 prototype missiles took place in August 1954; over the next year, forty additional tests took place. These proved less than satisfactory; by 1957, the Dart was still not ready for service, and it was believed that Aerophysics Development had overextended themselves with the technical challenges involved in the missile's development. Accordingly, the program was extended, with some of the Army's requirements being relaxed, however in September 1958 the program was determined to be too far behind schedule and too far over budget to be successful, and the contract for the Dart was cancelled. The Army adopted the SS.10, designated MGM-21, and the

, designated AGM-22, in its stead. The program had cost $44 million in 1955 dollars.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{US Army missiles Anti-tank guided missiles of the United States Abandoned military rocket and missile projects of the United States Anti-tank guided missiles of the Cold War