120 mm BAT recoilless rifle

The L2 BAT, short for Battalion, Anti-Tank, was a 120 mm calibre recoilless anti-tank rifle used by the British Army. It was developed from the wartime Ordnance, RCL, 3.45 in and replaced it along with the Ordnance QF 17-pounder, becoming the standard anti-tank weapon of the army in the years after World War II. The original towed gun with a heavy armoured shield was accepted for service in 1953. Further versions followed: the MOBAT without a gun shield, the ConBAT with a new spotting rifle attachment, and the lightened L6 Wombat, which could ride in the back of a Land Rover or an FV432 carrier and suited paratroopers and marines. The usual round was a high explosive squash head shell with a range of about 1,800 m that could defeat 400 mm of armour; canister rounds loaded with flechettes served against infantry. Anti-tank guided missiles such as Vigilant and MILAN eventually replaced it, though the Wombat stayed with Berlin anti-tank platoons until the late 1980s. Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia also used versions.