The Bantam (an acronym for Bofors ANti-Tank Missile), also designated Robot 53 (Rb 53), was a Swedish wire-guided, manual command to line of sight (MCLOS), anti-tank missile developed in the late 1950s by Bofors. It served with the Swedish Army from 1963 and the Swiss Army from 1967.
Design and Operation
The missile was carried in a rectangular launcher box connected to a control box by a 20-meter cable, allowing the operator some separation from the launch point. A single soldier could set up the system in approximately 30 seconds. The control box contained an optical sight and a joystick, which transmitted commands to the missile via two thin trailing wires.
On launch, a small gyroscope was spun up by a powder pellet. A booster motor propelled the missile to a flight speed of about 85 meters per second. As it left the launcher, four wings unfolded, causing the missile to spin in flight for stability. After approximately 30 meters, the gyro unlocked and operator-controlled flight began. At 40 meters of wire deployment, the sustainer motor ignited along with up to four tracer flares. The booster motor burned out at 45 meters. The shaped-charge warhead was armed once 230 meters of wire had deployed from the second spool.
Commands from the joystick were relayed via the trailing wires, amplified by a transistor circuit in the missile, and routed to vibrating spoilers on the trailing edges of the four wings, based on the direction of command and the gyro-sensed orientation of the missile.
On impact, a piezo-electric fuze triggered the shaped-charge warhead, which could penetrate up to 500 millimeters of armor. The system had a claimed hit probability of 95 to 98 percent between ranges of 800 and 2,000 meters.
Operational Use
The Bantam was used operationally by Argentine Marines during the 1982 Falklands War. During a British helicopter attack on the submarine ARA Santa Fe near Grytviken (Operation Paraquet), Argentine troops fired at least one Bantam missile in defense alongside machine-gun fire. The Santa Fe sustained severe damage and was later scuttled.
Platforms
The missile could be deployed by a single soldier or mounted on vehicles. It was fitted to the Volvo L3314, the Scottish Aviation Bulldog, and, in Swiss service, on Steyr-Daimler-Puch Haflinger light wheeled vehicles. It was also experimentally mounted on a MOWAG Tornado IFV prototype.
Operators
- Argentina – Argentine Marine Corps
- Sweden – Swedish Army
- Switzerland – Swiss Army (systems Bantam BB65 with 10 missiles mounted on 200 Steyr Puch 700 AP Haflinger vehicles, used from 1969 to 1994)
Specifications
- Length: 0.85 m
- Diameter: 0.11 m
- Wingspan: 0.40 m
- Weight of missile: 7.6 kg
- Weight of missile and launcher box: 13 kg
- Range: 300 to 2,000 m
- Speed: 85 m/s
- Warhead: 1.14 kg shaped charge
The Bantam was broadly similar in concept to other first-generation anti-tank missiles such as the Cobra and the Soviet AT-1 Snapper.
