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The Ford MGM-51 ''Shillelagh'' was an American anti-tank guided missile designed to be launched from a conventional gun (cannon). It was originally intended to be the medium-range portion of a short, medium, long-range system for armored fighting vehicles in the 1960s and '70s to defeat future armor without an excessively large gun. Developing a system that could fire both shells and missiles reliably proved complex and largely unworkable. It 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. Ultimately very few of the 88,000 rounds produced were ever fired in combat. Shillelagh was considered equal to the later BGM-71 TOW anti-tank wire-guided missile first produced in 1970 by the U.S, which could not be fired from the gun but had a simpler guidance system.〔 Cagle, Mary T., History of the TOW Missile System, OCT 1977〕 However main battle tanks of the late 20th century fielded improved conventional 100 to 125 mm guns and ammunition which proved effective against enemy armor threats. While Soviets designers have developed gun launched missiles, the US and NATO were developing guided tank shells. The name of the system is that of a traditional wooden club from Ireland. ==Background== 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 WWII-era anti-tank guns. 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. To overcome this potential difficulty the US Army began to favor high-explosive antitank (HEAT), or shaped charge rounds in the 1950s. 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. 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. However, the low speed of the round makes it hard to aim over longer distances. The US Army sought to overcome this problem by developing guided missiles with shaped charge warheads that were accurate beyond a few hundred yards. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「MGM-51 Shillelagh」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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