Chad Irby wrote in message om...
In article ,
Charles Gray wrote:

The U.S. had a radar guided missile called BAT deployed towards the
end of WWII. The source material I've read claim that it sank a
Japanese DD, as well as hitting a bridge and it had a ragne of about
20 MI.
Forgive me for being suspicious, but that seems like *incredible*
performance for a radar guided weapon in WWII, given that I doubt many
homing radar missiles of the 1960's coudl be used both on bridges and
ships, to say nothing of a 1945 missile.
Does anyone have any more information about it, and more
importantly, why if it existed, did the Russians beat us to the punch
with the Styx?

The Bat was really an unpowered glide bomb, but did have about a 20 mile
max range, and was radar-guided. If you're talking about hitting a
single ship in the middle of the ocean, or a large bridge, it's pretty
easy to manage.

http://www.nasm.edu/nasm/dsh/artifacts/RM-bat.htm

Big deal. The Germans used the Hs-293 and Fritz-X weapons to much
greater effect. By war's end the TV-guided Hs-293D was also tested
along with the anti-radar Bv-246 Hagelkorn with Radieschen seeker. The
Germans had entire categories of missiles that none of the Allies had.

The SS-N-2 Styx came much, much later (almost 20 years). A lot of other
folks had build glide bombs of different types, as well as rockets.

"Beat to the punch?" Nope, although the SS-N-2 was a pretty good
missile for the time, and somewhat of a surprise.

Most of what the Allies developed after WW2 was largely based on Third
Reich armaments of which missile technology was a priority.


Rob