U.S. Vehicle mounted ATGM

[mikeCK]

i recently saw this video about a (I assume) prototype recon vehicle by Lockheed Martin

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V8OArUzxtdM

What I find interesting is the use of the "Hellfire" ATGM instead of the "TOW-2b". Last I checked, the hellfire was laser guided. Since most armored vehicles use laser range finders, I'm assuming they have the power to run a laser designator. Would the Hellfire be a better choice for vehicles like the Bradley or upgraded Stryker? Does anyone know why the Hellfire has been limited to Air launch and -now- sea launched? 

[Alchenar]

I presume it's a combination of:

1)  TOW-2b having a range of 4.5km whereas the video says they fired the' HELLFIRE II missile from 6.4 km'.

2) Infolink with Apaches.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Hellfire is somewhat larger and twice the weight of TOW and has never been approved for use on Bradley or other ground vehicles.

[panzersaurkrautwerfer]

There was some thought put into ground mounted Hellfires, but the employment was more along the lines of a launcher unit somewhere behind friendly lines that would fire in support of forward designation teams.  I believe it was part of the whole 9th ID experiment with dune buggies and all.  I think the Lockheed Martin thing is along similar lines, perhaps a recognition of the limits of ATGM launcher vehicles.  As far as strapping them to IFVs though there's not a lot of point to it, the Hellfire has a lot of range it wouldn't be able to exploit in direct fire with as pointed out some pretty major cost and weight penalties.

Think it's more likely you'll see a vehicle mounted version of the Javelin in regards to something like a Bradley.  

[John Kettler]

mikeCK,

Here's a short and old (note Javelin is in test) piece on having a Hellfire ground mount, including a launch shot from a Hummer. Please note what One Old TOW Sergeant has to say about the idea. And it's not because he's nuts about the TOW but because he's handled TOW a lot, it's heavy and difficult to reload manually in the Bradley or M901 ITV, so understandably a 40% weight increase doesn't sit well when the TOW's already a handful.  He also objects because it's cheap enough to be live fired for proper training, whereas Hellfire isn't. When I worked for Hughes Missile Systems Group (now Raytheon), which built the TOW, the original version of the missile was $5000 in 1980 dollars. Hellfire was astronomic by comparison, though I don't know costs for the quite sophisticated TOW 2B and TOW 2B Aero vs whatever the current antiarmor Hellfire version runs. Also, I'd point out that one of TOW's great virtues is that its targeting sensors are passive, which Hellfire's are not.

http://www.g2mil.com/hellfire.htm

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin is pushing a modular pedestal quad mount for all Hellfire missiles and something called DAGR.

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/mfc/pc/dagr/mfc_hellfire-dagr-pc.pdf

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited November 29, 2015 by John Kettler

[mikeCK]

Ok, so basically the Hellfire is heavier, it's range far exceeds a ground units ability to use direct fire, it's expensive and the laser designator can be detected. Makes sense. Thanks