|
|||
The Marines are now moving out with motorized patrols looking for things to kill. The Marines have a saying: Killing tanks is fun and easy. It's true, too, especially when the tanks are T-55's. Against modern weapons those are dead meat. The Marines do not need tanks of their own and in fact wouldn't want them right now because they're heavy and require too much supply to keep operating. Light armored cars and Hummvees are better. To take out Taliban tanks, they'll use antitank missiles. Infantry antitank missiles have gone through four stages. The first was unguided rockets such as the American bazooka or the German panzerfaust. Depending on the warhead, if they struck they could be extremely deadly. But it took a great deal of skill to hit with one, because the gunner was really lobbing the rocket at the target; the rocket didn't travel a straight line. They were far from useless but they missed more often than they hit (despite what they show in the movies). The next major development was wire-guided missiles. The missile reeled out a wire behind it after it was launched, and the operator had a small joystick that he could use to steer the missile while it flew. This required a great deal of skill by the operator, which did not come easily because there was no way to practice without using up missiles. The control electronics were relatively primitive, but they were state-of-the-art for the day. The third stage had a much more intuitive control scheme. The operator had a sight and fixed it on the target he wished to hit. After the missile was launched, he kept his sight on the target and the missile would hit where he aimed. Not only was this much easier to use but operators could practice without firing missiles. This is the guidance system used by TOW. The biggest difficulty with this system is that the missile had a pretty long travel time (upwards of five seconds depending on the range), and if the target tank spotted the operator during that time and could train a machine gun on him, they could spoil his aim (and maybe even his whole day). The ideal system is called "fire and forget"; the operator picks a target with an optical sight, launches the missile, and then no longer is involved. The missile picks up its target designation from the sight and then tracks and (hopefully) hits that target without further operator intervention. The operator probably continues to monitor the target just to determine if another shot will be needed, but if he's put under fire he can duck. That is what Javelin uses, and that's what the Marines are carrying in Afghanistan. (discuss) |
|||
