Anti-tank missile
Anti-tank missiles are surface-to-surface or air-to-surface missiles optimized to defeat the most heavily armored of battlefield vehichles, tanks. They range in size from easily portable shoulder-fired missiles [[e.g., FGM-148 Javelin) to larger weapons fired from purpose-built vehicles or aircraft (e.g., BGM-71 TOW). TOW is an abbreviation for the defining characteristic of a generation of medium to heavy anti-tank missiles: tube-launched, optically tracked, wire-guided. Newer missiles in this class have more autonomous guidance.
There are also anti-tank missiles that can be fired from the shoulder of a single soldier, which previously had been the province of unguided rockets with HEAT warheads. The unguided versions included the Second World War U.S. bazooka, German Panzerfaust, and Soviet RPG; the next generation, more lethal, included an upgraded 3.5" bazooka, the 66mm light antitank weapon (LAW) and the AT-4. Representative of a modern antitank guided missile is the U.S. FGM-148 Javelin.
Optimizations
Top attack
Dual warhead
Fire and forget
Examples
Light to medium, shoulder-fired or fired from portable mount
- Soviet 9M14M Malutka (Tiny or Little Baby)/NATO: AT-3 SAGGER
- U.S. M47 Dragon, fired from portable tripod
Medium to heavy, fired from mount
The larger anti-tank missiles may variously be fired from a mount on an armored or unarmored vehicle, from helicopters, and sometimes from fixed-wing aircraft.
- French Euromissile HOT (French: haut subsonique optiquement téléguidé tiré d’un tube, or high-subsonic, optically teleguided, tube-fired)
- French MILAN (French: missile d’infanterie léger antichar or light infantry antitank missile)
- Soviet AT-5/SPANDREL and AT-6/SPIRAL
- U.K. Swingfire
- U.S. BGM-71 TOW