Here comes the thread about anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) guidance systems ๐งต:
Thursday I did a thread about ATGM warheads & a thread about non-guided anti-tank rockets like the AT4 or Panzerfaust 3 (I will link these threads below); but now it's time for the big ones.
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Let's begin with the Semi-Automatic Command to Line Of Sight (SACLOS) missiles, which we have to divide in two groups:
Overfly top attack:
๐บ๐ธ TOW-2B
๐ธ๐ช BILL, BILL 2 2/n
Simplified explanation of Semi-Automatic Command to Line Of Sight:
โข "Semi" = the gunner has to aim at the target / keep it in his line of sight from launch to impact.
โข "Automatic Command" = the launch unit tracks the missile and automatically sends steering commands to
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the missile to align it with the gunner's line of sight to the target.
The missile is tracked via an infrared beacon at the rear of the missile. In older missiles this was a simple flare activated at missile launch. As flares can be easily jammed by an enemy infrared source
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modern missiles use infrared or electronic-flash lamps, which blink at coded frequencies randomly chosen by the launch unit.
TOWs, like this one used in Syria, use a Xenon beacon as short-wave infrared tracking source & a high-intensity thermal beacon as long-wave tracking 5/n
source.
The steering commands are sent from the launch unit to the missile via a wire: either a thin copper or steel wire, which unravels from the missile during flight.
A short clip of a French Milan training ground, where you can see dozens of wires in the grass. 6/n
TOW missiles use two 3,750m long steel cables (the new RF variant uses a one-way radio link). Wires can't be jammed, but they can be entangled by trees or other obstacles.
SACLOS is a proven design, but with a few drawbacks: in smaller missile designs the wires limit the 7/n
range and for the duration of the flight the operator has to remain exposed to aim at the target, like this Ukrainian Milan operator.
To guarantee a stable line of sight most SACLOS missiles come with a heavy tripod, which is why i.e. the US Army today uses TOW missiles on 8/n
on Humvee, Strykers, and Bradleys. If you look closely at these TOW missiles, you will see they have different cone shapes: direct-attack TOW-2A and overfly top attack TOW-2B missiles.
TOW-2A missiles have a extendedible probe with a precursor warhead to defeat Explosive 9/n
Reactive Armor before the main HEAT warhead is detonated.
TOW-2B missiles have a sensor unit at the front, which uses laser profilometers and a magnetic sensor to recognize when it flies over the target and then detonates the missile's two Tantalum EFP warheads. 10/n
If you have not yet read my thread about HEAT and EFP warheads, below is the link to it:
Overfly top attack missiles like the TOW, BILL, and BILL 2 have the advantage that an enemy target doesn't need to be fully visible for them to hit it. 11/n
The Javelin is the only pure Fire & Forget anti-tank guided missile. Once the Javelin's Command Launch Unit 13/n
has acquired a target the Javelin launches and its gimbal mounted imaging infrared seeker automatically pursues the target.
Meanwhile the Javelin rises to 160m, flies towards the target, and once above it dives onto to it and detonates its tandem HEAT warhead. 14/n
The drawback of the Javelin is that the operator needs to have a clear line of sight to the target before launch, but one of the main advantages of the Javelin is that the operator can immediately get up and take cover once the missiles is launched. 15/n
The Spike and Akeron can be used as a Fire & Forget missile too... but their main advantage is that they can lock on at a target after launch.
After launch both missiles rise in the air and their gimbal mounted infrared/CCD sensors acquire video of the battlefield, which is 16/n
sent back to the launch unit through a unraveling optical fiber cable. (Spike ER missiles have an 8 (!) km cable.)
Here is a video of Azerbaijani Spike gunners flying over Armenian units, picking out the most valuable targets, and guiding their missiles onto these targets. 17/n
That Israel forbids European nations to deliver some of their 20,000 Spike missiles to Ukraine is disgusting and hampers Ukrainian combat capability.
Now to the only true laser beam riding anti-tank guided missile. The russian Kornet. Laser beam riding requires a direct 18/n
line of sight to the target and the operator has to keep aiming the laser at the target until impact.
And it is not really a laser beam, it's more like a laser grid and a laser receiver at the end of the missile determines the missile's position within that grid. The missile 19/n
then calculates the required steering commands to move itself to the grid's center, which aligns with the operator's line of sight to the target.
Supposedly also Ukraine's Corsar and Stugna-P missiles are laser beam riding... but publicly available info is contradictory 20/n
and the missiles' design seems to point to both being laser-guided SACLOS missiles.
All Luch Design Bureau missiles have a laser receiver and an infrared beacon at the rear, as i.e. the 130mm & 152mm Skif/Stugna-P missiles in this photo (right side: upper and lower missile) 21/n
This makes it likely that Ukraine's own ATGMs use the laser (instead of a wire) to send steering commands calculated by the launch unit to the missiles.
If this assumption is correct then neither Corsar nor Stugna-P are laser beam riding missiles. If anyone has more info, 22/n
that can be shared without damaging operational security - please comment below this thread.
Now to our last two guided missiles: the Spike SR and NLAW.
Both are shoulder launched, short range, fire and forget systems. The main difference is that the NLAW is an overfly top 23/n
attack missile, which fires a Tantalum EFP warhead downward, while the Spike SR is a direct attack missile, which uses a tandem HEAT warhead.
Both use optical and magnetic sensors to ignite detonation, with the NLAW having downward looking laser sensors and the Spike SR 24/n
having forward looking infrared sensors. Due to their short range both systems have limited, automatic steering to compensate for the possible movement of a target. Both systems could be described as the Javelin's little Fire & Forget siblings.
This almost concludes my 25/n
my infantry anti-tank weapons threads. If you have not yet read my anti-tank rockets and countermeasures (ERA, NERA, ceramics, etc) thread, the link is here below.
If you want to know more, tonight I will be on the @MriyaReport talking for a few 26/n
hours about artillery, anti-tank weapons, air combat, air defense, combined arms, tank warfare, mechanized infantry tactics, missile artillery, and all other aspects of modern war, which Ukraine will use to liberate the South this spring.
27/end
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Earlier I did a thread about the two types of warhead anti-tank weapons carried by infantry use: HEAT and EFP warheads (link in the next tweet).
Now a thread about ๐งต:
trajectories, fuzes and tandem warheads of anti-tank rockets and missiles; and reactive and ceramic armor.
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If you have not yet read my HEAT and EFP thread - please do so now. I have linked it here:
Almost all anti-tank missiles and rockets fly in a (more or less) straight line towards the target and detonate upon impact, but there are a few exceptions: 2/n
โข top attack missiles (Javelin, Spike, Akeron) fly a lofted trajectory and strike the target from above. Their warheads detonate upon impact.
โข overfly top attack missiles (BILL/BILL 2, TOW-2B, NLAW) fly a straight line slightly above the target and fire their EFP warheads 3/n
A look at anti-tank guided missiles, shoulder launched anti-tank rockets, anti-tank warheads, missile guidance systems, as well as armor countermeasures and active protection systems.
You will learn a lot in these threads ๐งต:
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I will focus on NATO, Ukrainian & Swedish vs. russian anti-tank weapons. Like i.e:
All of the above (except four) use a jet-forming shaped charge warhead known as High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT).
The exceptions are the overfly top-attack BILL/BILL 2, TOW-2B & NLAW, which use a slug-forming shaped charge warhead known as Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP).
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Germany ordering just 10x PzH 2000 is damaging the German defense industry. 10x are just enough to keep the production line open... but in times like ours an expansion of production is needed.
In Europe๐ฌ๐ง๐ช๐ธ๐ซ๐ท๐ต๐น๐ฆ๐น๐ง๐ฌ๐ท๐ด need to replace their older self-propelled artillery, 1/4
while ๐ฎ๐น๐ฑ๐น๐ณ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ท๐ฌ๐ท need more PzH 2000 and Ukraine needs masses of them. Germany's future army organization requires ~90 new PzH 2000. In total Europe has a need of ~500 armored self-propelled howitzers... with the current production line it would take around 30 years to build
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that number of PzH 2000.
As long as Germany itself doesn't commit to buy more PzH 2000 it is better for a nation to buy the South Korean K9 Thunder, of which ~60 are produced every year.
If Germany orders 100x PzH 2000 (= โฌ1.57 bn) then other European nations will buy too, 3/4
All this doom mongering about how "difficult" it will be for Ukraine to breach the russian trenches in the South... people need to man up and do some military service before running their mouths like that.
A thread about offensive operations ๐งต:
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Yes, breaching a defensive line with an anti-tank ditch out front, a minefield, deep trenches filled with machine guns and ATGM teams is difficult... IF you don't have the right tools.
A trench line is barely an inconvienance for NATO, because of this โฌ๏ธโฌ๏ธ 2/n
Ukraine doesn't have air supremacy, but Ukraine is receiving other tools. Like i.e. JDAM ER bombs to plough through those russian trenches.
Here a Taliban compound is flattened by GBU-32 JDAMs (1,000 lb Mk 83 bombs).
Ukraine won't be able to use the JDAM ERs at their max. 3/n
Photos of a Ukrainian Special Operations unit in one THE hottest spots of the front. They use a mix of recon drones, grenade dropping drones, Switchblade 300 drones, and self-build kamikaze drones. 1/4
Preparation and use of Switchblade 300... and also these guys have not yet seen any of the mythical Phoenix Ghost drones. 2/4