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Old 02-13-2019, 07:08 PM
Vespers War Vespers War is offline
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It's also been getting harder to maintain the Bradleys as parts go obsolete. The gunner's sight for the TOW uses some incredibly old-tech wafers for the IR sensor that AFAIK only one company still has dies for (I used to be the buyer for the wafers for a company that made the launcher electronics and some other systems). We actually had a Bradley that the government permanently loaned us in order to test any changes that we wanted to make to the stuff we made.

I think the inclusion of the TOW launcher stemmed from a Cold-War-Goes-Hot-In-Europe mentality. NATO wouldn't have as many tanks as the Pact, but cramming anti-tank weapons onto everything gave lighter units a chance to ambush and knock out heavier vehicles. It was the equivalent of cramming a 75mm gun onto the M24 Chaffee (with its maximum of 38mm of armor) - you hope you don't run into anything that needs that kind of firepower, but you carry it along because it's better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Legbreaker
On the plus side, ANY vehicle that exposes itself is dead generally, and the Bradley is certainly no exception. Firing the TOW should absolutely be done from a hull down position, and if the equipment allowed (which in this case I don't think it does) a turret down position.
No, you're correct, it can't really be fired from a turret down position. The TOW is a SACLOS-guided missile that steers towards the gunner's crosshairs based on a thermal sight spotting a flare at the tail end of the missile. The Integrated Sight Unit is at the top of the turret, but it needs to pick up the missile quickly or else the missile will self-destruct to avoid unguided flight. If the system was being redesigned now, I expect the TOW would be replaced by the Javelin, to give fire-and-forget capability to the anti-tank weapon.

Quote:
Originally Posted by CDAT
Well looking up stats for it on Wikipedia so take it for what it is worth, early on max range was 3000 meters, updated ones 3750 meters. It also says that it takes 20 seconds to get to max range, now it does not say for what max range but does talk about making it faster so maybe both? Either way it is faster than I was lead to believe, but it also talks about how the actual penetration was less than expected from testing Original supposed to 600mm actual 430mm, improved 7-800mm actual 630mm.
The BGM-71D and -71E (TOW-2 and TOW-2A) are ~20 seconds to 3750 meters. The BGM-71F (TOW-2B) is ~21 seconds to the same range because it flies a different angle to get a top-attack profile. I don't know about the older versions.
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