The service wants a new missile that can
travel twice as far, but also kill tanks
closer than ever. In the early 1970s the army fielded what
was then the heaviest, longest-range
anti-tank missile in the world.
The army facing down thousands of soviet
tanks in Europe, needed a weapon system
that could kill tanks accurately at long
ranges. Even beyond the range of tank
guns, that missile was the BGM-71 TOW.
The BGM-71 TOW which was 5 inches in
diameter fits in a large launch tube
connected to a command unit. The gunner placed the crosshairs on an
enemy tank and fired the missile.
The gunner could move the crosshairs to
keep them centered on a moving enemy
tank and as the missile sped downrange
it trailed a thin wire that allowed it
to receive the gunner's course
adjustments.
The TOW was revolutionary, it had a hit
probability of about 90 percent out of its
maximum range of 3700 meters (2.33 miles). Once the TOW reached its target its
shaped charge warhead could penetrate
the heaviest of enemy armor.
The missile was more accurate and
deadlier than a tank gun, but it couldn't
match a tank gun's rate of fire.
An attack helicopter could carry up to
eight TOW missiles. Vehicles like the
armored personnel carriers, the M2 Bradley fighting vehicle dedicated
anti-tank vehicles and the humvee could
also carry the weapon.
Although built for the battlefields of
western europe, the TOW's baptism of fire
took place in the skies over vietnam, with the helicopter-mounted toes killing
north vietnamese tanks in the 1972
easter offensive. The US then supplied the missiles to
israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
US forces later used TOW missiles in
the gulf war, Afghanistan and the 2003
invasion of Iraq. TOW missiles famously besieged the house
where saddam hussein's sons uday and
quisay were holed up, blowing up the
building during a joint raid by delta
force in the 101st airborne division.
The army has gradually updated the TOW over the years. The missile warhead is
now capable of penetrating reactive
armor, using a tandem charge that first
explodes the protective armor tile and
then a second that penetrates the tank's
main armor belt.
The army also replaced the trailing
control wire with a wireless connection. The missile still has the original mode
shortcomings, including a relatively slow
speed 21 seconds to reach its maximum
range of 2.2 miles.
While the army has tried to swap out the TOW before, the end of the cold war and
the collapse of the mighty soviet army
made the replacement a low priority. Now as army times reports, the army wants
a TOW replacement once more.
The close combat missile system heavy CCMSH will have a range of 10,000 meters, almost three times the range of the TOW while keeping the same dimensions as the
existing missile. This will allow the army to use it from
existing launch systems, including the m2
bradley and the new joint tactical light
vehicle.
In addition to the range the army wants
a faster missile. A TOW missile traveling to 10,000 meters (6.21 miles) would take nearly a minute to
reach its target. If the gunner comes during that time, it
could throw off the soldier's aim, wasting the missile.
More concerning, russian tanks and
armored vehicles including the T-90M main battle tank can now fire missiles
of their own to ranges of up to 5000
meters, decisively out ranging the toe. The army wants the missile to arm at
just 100 meters, likely to allow
close-range shots during city fights and
on small islands.
The missile must also survive active
protection systems and jammers that
would attempt to shoot down or jam them. The service would like CCMSH to have
several guidance modes including the TOW's command line of sight, a fire and
forget mode and a missile capable of
being fired first and then accepting
targeting data in flight.
The army also wants an autonomous attack
capability that would allow the missile
to steer itself to a set of coordinates
and then attack any nearby enemy armored
vehicle.
The army will likely field the TOW's
replacement either a new missile or an
existing one, sometime in the early 2030s. One missile that fits many of the
cr,iteria is the israeli-made Spiker-2
which has the range requirement and
several of the launch and targeting
modes.
