A Stryker vehicle crew belonging to the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, fires a TOW missile during the brigade's rotation through Fort Polk's, Joint Readiness Training Center.
That’s a great picture, because you can see the control wires spooling out of the back of the missile.
I had an engineering job about 20 years ago where I worked on improving the machines that wound the spools for those wires.
That was around Dessert Storm. Hard to believe that was so long ago….But damn, that was a fun job.
It was ancient technology even back then. But it still seemed a bit unbelievable that you could control a missile with wires that follow it everywhere it goes.
The thing is reliable because those wires form a secure communication link that is not susceptible to jamming and other countermeasures, however, the gunner does have to track the target for the entire flight.
the greatest anti-tank weapon yet. the first variants made in during vietnam, now they have a missile that will travel 4200 meters!! Not even anti-aircraft platforms fire that far
I didn’t know TOWs were even still fielded.
Googling…
…
Huh, and the wiki sez it’s the most common ATGM in the world. Now how about that?
They work great against insurgents & IED teams.
From 3 clicks away, you put a missile on a couple of IED emplacers and they turn to goo before they know the missile is inbound.
Wow, that’s a blast from the past!
That’s a great picture, because you can see the control wires spooling out of the back of the missile.
I had an engineering job about 20 years ago where I worked on improving the machines that wound the spools for those wires.
That was around Dessert Storm. Hard to believe that was so long ago….But damn, that was a fun job.
It was ancient technology even back then. But it still seemed a bit unbelievable that you could control a missile with wires that follow it everywhere it goes.
But you can! And I’m sure it still works.
The thing is reliable because those wires form a secure communication link that is not susceptible to jamming and other countermeasures, however, the gunner does have to track the target for the entire flight.
If it ain’t broke…
the greatest anti-tank weapon yet. the first variants made in during vietnam, now they have a missile that will travel 4200 meters!! Not even anti-aircraft platforms fire that far