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From: berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com (Deer, Dogs, and Runners: What are the favorite foods of Mountain Lions?  07-Feb-1991 0915)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: FOG-M
Message-ID: <1991Feb8.013948.17818@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 8 Feb 91 01:39:48 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
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From: "Deer, Dogs, and Runners: What are the favorite foods of Mountain Lions?  07-Feb-1991 0915" <berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com>
The original concept of the FOG-M was as an over the horizon anti-tank
missle.  With something like TOW, you must have line of sight to the
target and the wire is only used to send steering signals to the missle.
With laser guided missles, someone (on the ground or in the air) still
has to be line of sight to the target.  With a FOG-M, you launch in the
direction of the battlefield.  A camera in the missle transmits over the
fiber and allows someone to guide the missle while staying out of harms
way.  The military never showed interest in this application of the
missle.

When DIVAD (Sgt. York) was cancelled, the Army went looking for a new
point air defense system and actually ended up with three different
systems for different applications.  One of these was a proposal to use
FOG-M as a non-line of sight anti-helicopter weapon.  When a helicopter
was detected using a hill for cover, and therefore only visible and
vulnerable to Stinger (etc.) for brief periods, FOG-M would be used to
take it out.

The original beauty of FOG-M was simplicity, low-cost, and protection of
the gunner.  In trying to turn it into a SAM system, all that was lost.
The concept is still applicable to, and probably infallable as, an
anti-tank weapon.
.............................................................................

Hal Berenson	berenson@cookie.enet.dec.com

-- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's! --