Ruhrstahl X-7
| Ruhrstahl X-7 | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Type | Ground-floor - anti-tank guided missile |
| Local name | Ruhrstahl X-7 Kramer X-7 Ruhrstahl-Kramer RK 347 |
| Country of origin | German Empire |
| Manufacturer | Ruhrstahl AG |
| Commissioning | never regular |
| Working time | January 1945 |
| Technical specifications | |
| length | 95 cm |
| diameter | 15 cm |
| Combat weight | 9 kg |
| span | 60 cm |
| Drive First stage Second stage |
BMW 109–506 2.5 s 8 s |
| speed | 360 km / h |
| Range | 1200 m |
| Furnishing | |
| steering | Wire steering ( MCLOS ) |
| Warhead | 2.5 kg shaped charge |
| fuel |
Diglycol Dinitrate Powder |
| Burn time |
22 s |
| thrust |
1.37 kN (140 kp) |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Ruhrstahl X-7 "Rotkäppchen" (also Kramer X-7 or Ruhrstahl-Kramer RK 347 ) was a German anti-tank guided missile with wire steering (now known as MCLOS ), which was developed during the Second World War . It is basically the smaller version of the X-4 , but was powered by solid rockets .
history
Since the German anti-tank weapons such as the Panzerfaust and the Panzerschreck were only effective at very short distances, a search was made for a weapon that could destroy armored vehicles even at greater distances. In 1944, for example, the Ruhrstahl company received an order from the Heereswaffenamt to develop the X-7. Ruhrstahl leaned heavily on the X-4 air-to-air missile, which had already been successfully tested at the time, during development .
The X-7 was powered by two solid fuel rockets, with the first stage producing 68 kp of thrust , launching the rocket and bringing it up to speed. The second stage produced a continuous thrust of 5.5 kp over eight seconds and was supposed to bring the missile with the 2.5 kg shaped charge to the target. The maximum range of the X-7 was around 1,200 m. On September 21, 1944, seven X-7s were launched for test purposes at the Sennelager military training area . The tests were to be completed in 1945 and mass production was planned at Ruhrstahl in the Brackwede plant and in the mechanical works in Neubrandenburg . Several hundred X-7s were produced, most of which were used for testing. A few examples may still have been used on the Eastern Front in the final months of the war in 1945 . The X-7 was groundbreaking for the further development of anti-tank guided weapons after the Second World War.
France produced a further developed and improved version of the X-7 in 1955 with the SS.10 , the development of which in turn had a decisive influence on the following, better-known SS.11 .
literature
- Roger Ford: The German Secret Weapons of World War II. Nebel, ISBN 3-89555-087-6 .
- Josef Stemmer: rocket drives. Swiss printing and publishing house AG. Zurich, 1952.