Cold War Warsaw Pact Vehicle crossposts.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Also worth noting it's generally western doctrine to operate AT missiles in pairs. The target usually can only shoot at one of the launchers so the other should get the hit.

That definitely increases the odds of a hit/kill, but it would be small consolation for the crew that the enemy decides to blast with counter-fire.

Originally Posted by pansarskott

1st gen: fly a rocket using a joystick towards the target. More difficult if the launcher is offset from the line between operator and target. Even more complicated when the target is moving and you have to estimate distances and how hard to turn the missile.

That's a good point.

Originally Posted by pansarskott

2nd gen: keep the crosshairs on the target until the missile hits. The launcher will send commands to the missile to keep it on track (the missile has a beacon that the launcher "sees")

Right, but I imagine that this system would work just as well with an offset launcher than with an all-in-one unit.

Originally Posted by pansarskott

And now there are missiles like Javelin to take care of the problem of staying exposed guiding the missile.

Indeed. I reckon armies would run out of those current gen fire-and-forget ATGMs soonest, leaving older wire-guided models (until those run out).