Home > Wire-guided missile

Wire guidance is obviously limited by the length of the wire; the longest-ranged wire-guided missile in current use is the Tube-Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-Guided Missile System (TOW), with a range of 3750 m [1].

Wire guidance was first employed by the Germans during World War II. Most of their developments used radio control, but as the British proved to be able to jam anything they used, rushed projects were started in 1944 in order to develop alternatives. The first system to be modified in this fashion was the Henschel Hs 249 B anti-shipping missile, but by the time it was ready it was too late to be useful as the Allies had already landed strong forces in France. Other examples included the X-4 anti-aircraft missile, and the X-7 anti-tank version of the X-4.

In the post-war era it was the X-7 that had the most effect on other military thinkers. By the early 1950s a number of experimental systems had been developed (see, e.g. Malkara missile), leading to their widespread deployment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Large numbers of Israeli tanks were destroyed using wire guided missiles during the Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War (also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War the October War and Ramadan War , was fought from October 6 (the day of Yom Kippur) to October 22/ 24, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of Egypt and Syria. Summary President Gamal Abdel Nasse of 1973. Wire guidance has remained the main system for most smaller weapons, although laserFor alternative meanings see laser (disambiguation). A laser light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is a device which uses a quantum mechanical effect, stimulated emission, to generate a coherent beam of light. Light from a laser is often beam ridingBeam-riding guidance leads a missile to its target by means of radar or a laser beam. The main use of this kind of system is to destroy airplanes. First, an aiming station in the launching area directs a narrow radar beam at the enemy aircraft. Then, the systems have come into use for the anti-aircraft role, and some longer range anti-tank use (notably the US'sThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in helicopter-launched Hellfire missile). The US Army's new Javelin anti-tank missile uses neither wires nor lasers; the missile has a small thermal imaging TV camera in the nose and a computer that is sufficiently sophisticated that once locked onto a tank, it will follow it autonomously, even if it is moving.