M47 Dragon

M47 Dragon
The M47 Dragon, shown here with its daytime tracker attached.
Type	Anti-tank missile
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1975–present
Used by	See Operators
Wars	Invasion of Grenada Iran–Iraq War Persian Gulf War
Production history
Designer	Raytheon
Designed	March 3, 1966
Manufacturer	McDonnell Douglas, Raytheon
Unit cost	$13,000 (standard) $51,000 (with night tracking system)
Produced	1975
Number built	7,000 launchers, 33,000 missiles (U.S. Army) 17,000 missiles (U.S. Marine Corps)
Variants	Dragon II, Super Dragon, Saeghe 1 and 2
Specifications (FGM-77)
Length	1,154 mm (45.4 in)
Diameter	140 mm
Crew	1
Effective firing range	1,000 meters, minimum 75 meters
Maximum firing range	1,000–1,500 meters
Warhead	Hollow charge
Speed	200 m/s (660 ft/s)
Guidance system	SACLOS system sights

The M47 Dragon, known as the FGM-77 during development, is an American shoulder-fired, man-portable anti-tank missile system. It was phased out of U.S. military service in 2001, in favor of the newer FGM-148 Javelin system.

The M47 Dragon uses a wire-guidance system in concert with a high explosive anti-tank warhead and was capable of defeating armored vehicles, fortified bunkers, main battle tanks, and other hardened targets. While it was primarily created to defeat the Soviet Union's T-55, T-62, and T-72 tanks, it saw use well into the 1990s, seeing action in the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. military officially retired the weapon in 2001, although stocks of the weapon remain in U.S. arsenals.

Used by the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as many foreign militaries, the M47 Dragon was first fielded in January 1975 to U.S. Army soldiers stationed in mainland Europe. The effective range of the Dragon was about 1000 meters, with the missile traveling 100 meters per second, guided by an infrared sight. The operator had to continue to track the missile to its target, which exposed him to enemy fire.

The principles of flight and guidance were interesting. The first oddity was the delay between snapping the trigger and the ignition of the launch motor. This was due to a chemical battery charging the initiator circuit (the operator could hear a rising whine similar to the whine made by early integrated flash cameras when charging the flash circuit). This usually led to the operator tensing up in anticipation of the sudden explosion from the launcher that he knew was coming. The missile was discharged from the launcher tube by a "launch motor", which was a rocket motor that completely expended itself within the tube so as not to injure the operator with exhaust gas. The missile coasted away from the operator and a burning infrared flare was ignited at the rear of the missile.