urmomma158

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/...tion/index.php

great news once again another great Anti armor weapon in the US arsenal to go along with the

AGM 65 MAverick,Hellfire2,BLU 108,Javelin,Predator etc!!!

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starsiege

why are they doing this? seriously?
the Hellfire(the IR and the laser/Radar guided) have much more range and armour penetration capabilities. Also they are more menuverable and provide lock-on-before launch and lock-on-after launch capabilities.

why do they have to make it wireless when they have the hellfire(and hellfire2)?

FOG3

Say what?!

Part of the whole point of using a TOW is it basically can't be jammed or otherwise be messed with by EW thanks to that wire. This seems like a really boneheaded move as I'm familiar with no innate problems with the wire that would justify its removal from the system.

"Aye sir, the more they overtech the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." - Scotty, Star Trek III The Search for Spock

Anon

An infantryman(or more correctly an infantry team) cannot carry a Hellfire.

The next phase the Army is working on is the TOW HATM(pretty sure that's the acronym, it fell under the CKEM program)....A hypervelocity kinetic energy TOW with a maximum flight speed of Mach 6.6 and IIRC reverse compatibility with existing TOW launch systems.

Obviously that missile will have total overmatch capability vs any concieveable conventionally armored target.

Also, modern sheathed pulsed data-links are reportedly extremely hard to jam. That's probably what this TOW uses.

GGTharos

You can't really jam the datalink either, since the antenna is in the -rear- of the missile ... at least, you can't jam it easily - you would need some serious jamming power to pull it off /or/ you would need to have the jammer somewhere between you and the launcher, or behind the launcher.

Canmoore

Throw some smuckers Raspberry Jam at that oncoming missile...that should do the trick!

woohoo!

Wraith601

[quote=M21Sniper;277907]An infantryman(or more correctly an infantry team) cannot carry a Hellfire.
[quote]

I would love to see an AFV that carried Hellfires, that's some serious firepower there.

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"We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France."
-Sir Arthur Wellesley

Officer of Engineers

The obvious answer is that the targeteer and the missileer does not need to be the same guy nor at the same location.

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Chimo

B.Smitty

Not true. Remember, a datalink has transmitters and receivers on both ends. If the launcher unit transmitter/receiver is jammed, the system won't work.

Even the wired version has the potential to be jammed/disrupted, since it still uses a coded beacon in the tail of the missile that's tracked by the launcher. If you had a laser mounted on in a trainable turret on the target vehicle (ala DIRCMS), you could zap the launcher optics, which (in addition to losing sight of the target) could cause the laucher to lose track of the missile.

B.Smitty

Is this actually a feature of wireless TOW? I was under the impression it was just a simple wire replacement.

IMHO, the neat thing about it is it requires no changes to the launcher. The wireless datalink is contained completely in the missile tube. The launcher doesn't have to know the difference between wired and wireless rounds.

Officer of Engineers

They were talking about this with the COYOTE battle management system. Don't know how far they've gotten with it.

Anon

Which is not going to happen in any realistic battlefield scenario.

HistoricalDavid

I still don't understand how the CKEM is basically a missile going Mach 6.5+ at sea-level. Air resistance?

Anon

Apparently it's a matter of brute thrust, cause the missile itself is not particularly aerodynamic looking...

A link to the previous WAB thread where this was discussed:
Shek: Info on the LOSAT replacement

And a pic:

starsiege

i thought the JAVELIN messile was the newer manportable anti tank missile for the american infantry. hmnnn strange!