Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: FQV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (jim bowers)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: U.S. Ground Vulnerablity
Message-ID: <1990Sep2.061150.3728@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 2 Sep 90 06:11:50 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 34
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: jim bowers <FQV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>

In article <1990Aug31.030929.24575@cbnews.att.com>, sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU
(Doug Mohney) says:
>And the poor bastard who has fired the TOW has to keep his aim steady
>for the 10-30 seconds of flight time, while the arty is coming down (usually
>done in "softening up" before the tanks roll in), and probably being shot
>at by the tank gunner ("Smoke trail ahead," "Waste him before he wastes
>us!"). Since the TOW is mounted on a tripod, it's OK, when compared to
>the shoulder-launched dirt-attacking Dragon...
>
>Of course, nobody can explain why we have a wonderful launch-and-leave
>SAM (the Stinger), but we're still using wires and leaving men out to be
>fired on with the TOW & Dragon...


In the TOW firings I have witnessed I don't particulary recall
that the missle leaves behind all that much smoke.
While a TOW does make a farily loud bang when it goes off it is highly
doubtful that a Tank will hear this (sound travel time) and have time
to respond.  Since the TOW system is cammoflagued and considerably
smaller than a tank it is difficult to detect where the missle came
from at the ranges in which a 20 sec travel time is an issue.
The greatest potential for being "knocked out" by artillery is not
from taking out the tracker but by severing a wire (a much higher
probability, cut the wire at any point and the missle is useless).

An antitank missle guided by laser designator would enable the missle
launch point and the tracker to be widely seperated and this would
be a distinct advantage.  So why don't they have a ground based version
of the Hellfire??????
                               Jim