[2] The name refers to its ability to make a rapid turn of up to ninety degrees after firing to bring it onto the line of the sighting mechanism.

This means that the launcher vehicle could be concealed and the operator, using a portable sight, placed at a distance in a more advantageous firing position.

[3] Desiring a more capable weapon, the Ministry of Supply funded the Orange William development at Fairey Engineering Ltd beginning in 1954.

Unfortunately, testing demonstrated the selected guidance system was easily blocked by smoke and dust, making it ineffective on the battlefield.

As the company already had experience in the indirect fire role, and fearing it would otherwise lead to the breakup of their missile team, Fairey was issued a new development contract in October 1959.

[3] The basic idea of the Swingfire concept was that thrust vectoring of the rocket exhaust allowed the missile to make extreme maneuvers, including a right-angle turn immediately after launch.

The missiles could be fired without the launcher ever exposing itself to the enemy, and the gunner could easily remain hidden in a foxhole or building.

Under this plan, the US would concentrate on short-range rapid-fire weapons, while RARDE would continue Swingfire development for the long-range role.

Aiming was accomplished either by the remote sight or one permanently mounted on a periscopic extension on top of the vehicle that allowed it to see over any fortifications in front.

Another change was that the two tubes were now separately mounted, instead of sharing a common hinge, which allowed one to be lowered for reload while the other was still in firing position.

Previous missile designs like Malkara had left a smoke trail pointing directly back to the launcher which could then be attacked.

This made aiming at long range largely a matter of luck, and as a result the accuracy proved to be below specifications.

The most widely produced version was the FV101 Scorpion which mounted the 76 mm L23A1 gun firing HESH rounds capable of destroying most armoured vehicles, but not main battle tanks.

[11] For the heavy anti-tank role, the FV102 Striker was designed, initially with a rotating turret mounting two Swingfire missiles on either side of the optics in the centre.

However, this concept was seen as flawed as there was no need to rotate Swingfire to point at the target, so a new version was designed with five launcher tubes in a box along the rear of the vehicle.

Another lingering problem was that the gyro which kept the missile flying level tended to drift, but this was corrected simply by angling the launch tubes up more.

This added an infrared tracker to the vehicle optics that tracked the rocket motor exhaust and sent the correct commands to the missile to bring it inline with the sights.

[2] Swingfire was developed by Fairey Engineering Ltd and the British Aircraft Corporation, together with Wallop Industries Ltd[12] and minor subcontractors.