Quote:
Originally Posted by Vespers War
The Soviets never went for a wire-guided ATGM on a tank, probably because reloading would have been a nightmare.
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Reloading is not a problem, just a hassle. What kills the concept is that these wires are extremely fragile. So launching them out of barrel almost certainly means they would snap. With the spool or connection made to something that would have to stay in the tank, there would be almost no way for the wires not to connect to the barrel front once the tank moves, rotates the turret or elevates or depresses the barrel. Especially, when one considers the stabilization of gun systems of this earlier era.
So, suddenly one has a tank that cannot move for 5-10 seconds. It can also not reload or shoot, since the wires are still connected to the gun system somehow (e. g. a spool winding of wire sits in the breach). Eere the point Vespers War made becomes relevant. That's not only absurdly dangerous, it's also completely against Soviet doctrine.
The Soviets emphasized large scale armored formations, driving forward constantly with later tanks mopping up remaining enemy vehicles and emplacements not destroyed by previous waves. Soviet C2 also was notoriously bad, so a tank stopping for its missile to be guided properly into an enemy tank would not only be a sitting duck, unable to shoot onto a target presenting itself or gearing up for a shot. Such a stopped tank would also break formation, disturb command and control of its formation and thus wave, creating an obstacle for later waves and would later need to rejoin its original wave.
An IR guidance system a better idea, as is radio guidance, which is used by the AT-8 Songster (9K112 Kobra). However, what seems to be most precise is a laser guidance system, as the later developed AT-11 Sniper (9M119 Svir/Refleks) uses. Still, all these SACLOS methods need to keep the gunner, looking, and quite often the barrel pointing, in direction of the target. So these weapons are rarely used on the offense. For such usage, fire-and-forget missiles are needed.