The US Army sought to overcome this problem by developing guided missiles that had shaped charge warheads and were accurate beyond a few hundred yards. However, the low speed of the round makes it hard to aim over longer distances. They also work better at larger diameters, and a large-diameter low-velocity gun makes for an excellent assault gun that can be mounted on light or medium-weight vehicles.
A shaped charge's penetration is not dependent on the speed of the round, allowing rounds to be fired at much lower velocities, and thus from much lighter guns. To overcome this potential difficulty, the US Army began to favor high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), or shaped charge rounds in the 1950s. A new generation of guns, notably the British 105 mm Royal Ordnance L7, were able to cope with newer tanks, but it appeared that in another generation the guns needed would be too large to be practical. With the rapid increase in armor thickness during World War II, tanks were becoming increasingly able to survive rounds fired from even the largest of World War II-era anti-tank guns. The name of the system is that of a traditional wooden club from Ireland. While Soviet designers developed gun launched missiles, the US and NATO were developing guided tank shells. Main battle tanks of the late 20th and early 21st century have fielded improved conventional 100-125 mm guns and ammunition effective against enemy armor threats. As wire guidance and a tube launcher proved to be simpler, TOW has been combat-fitted to 15,000 ground, light and armored vehicle and helicopter platforms of 40 international armed forces. Ultimately, very few of the 88,000 rounds produced were ever fired in combat, and the system was largely succeeded by the later BGM-71 TOW wire-guided missile, which was first produced in 1970. It was also used on the M60A2 "Starship", which was phased out by 1981. It was originally developed for the experimental but never produced MBT-70 tank and served most notably as a primary weapon of the M551 Sheridan light tank, but the missile system was not issued to units serving in Vietnam and was retired in 1996. Developing a system that could fire both shells and missiles reliably proved complex and largely unworkable. It was originally intended to be the medium-range portion of a short, medium, and long-range system for armored fighting vehicles in the 1960s and '70s to defeat future armor without an excessively large gun. The Ford MGM-51 Shillelagh (pronounced / ʃ ɪ ˈ l eɪ l i/ shil- AY-lee) was an American anti-tank guided missile designed to be launched from a conventional gun (cannon).
Send us feedback.Tank ( M551 Sheridan, MBT/KPz-70, and M60A2) These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'shillelagh.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Margaret Hartmann, Daily Intelligencer, 19 July 2017 2019 McConnell is also giving conservatives a shillelagh with which to beat Republican moderates who fail to go along with repeal, and perhaps even to mount primary challenges against them in 2018 or beyond. 2022 So in a team meeting, Helton hit all the historical notes, even giving a tutorial on the shillelagh that goes to the winning team. 2022 Alabama played a competitive first half of its NCAA tournament opener Friday against Notre Dame, but then took a whack from the Fighting Irish’s shillelagh in the second half to end its season with a 78-64 loss. Recent Examples on the Web The shillelagh, a tall walking stick, was also a protection against large animals.īrenda Yenke, cleveland, 24 Mar.