[Raellus]

Nice post, Web.

Clearly, the ATGM won out over the AT gun in NATO circles for good reason. Apart from rate of fire, the AT gun has no discernable advantages over the ATGM at the outset of the Twilight War.

As Mo and Paul and others have pointed out, though, after the TDM, when the hi-tech supply tap has been shut off to most armies in the field, a conventional AT gun firing standard tank gun ammo is going to become a much more valuable commodity. ATGM rounds are going to become scarce fast with unguided AT rounds close behind. Tank rounds would become scarce too but, as Paul mentioned, armies would stand a much better chance of being able to manufacture tank rounds after the TDM than they would ATGMs.

On a side note, I've always wondered how a TOW (or Milan or whatever) crew would be able to operate their systems effectively during a full-scale attack. Accurate artillery fire, especially, would be a serious threat to the crew, if not an insurmountable distraction as they attempt to hold the missile on target for the few long seconds between firing and impact. Shrapnel and blast from artillery (especially airburst rounds) could also cut guidance wires. I don't know, but trying to imagine a crew under fire trying to hit a moving Soviet tank (especially firing back) coming at them across a smoke-filled battlefield... it just seems incredibly difficult. That said, I don't know if things would be much better for an AT gun crew under the same battlefield conditions.