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Javelin, the super weapon


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Originally posted by Bradley Dick:

JasonC,

Interesting website. I thought they were much less, per missle round, but the CLU sounded right.

Hehe this made me laugh and i remember before i went to the MIT team, i was the armorer for my troop. We had 6 CLU's in my armorer's room. And i never had any Javelin missles. They sat in my armory room the whole time i was in Iraq and never moved from the spot i had them in.
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Well, according to this, the unit replacement cost for the TOW is $180,000.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/tow.htm

But that may be for the launcher and guidance unit. The missiles may be as cheap as $19,000 if you average historical cost.

Since the US armed forces bought something like 200,000 and haven't remotely expended that number (gulf war I they fired 3000, and the active phase of Iraq II they fired 560 - of course some are used in training etc), you don't actually buy a new one every time you fire one off.

It does cost to advance the system capability, though. Raytheon is getting $163 million for the new wireless TOW to be fielded by 2012.

Is a wireless TOW a round square? lol - well I suppose wireless, like wire-guided, starts with w. But maybe they should be TOR - tube launched, optically tracked, radio guided.

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Originally posted by JasonC:

Well, according to this, the unit replacement cost for the TOW is $180,000.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/tow.htm

But that may be for the launcher and guidance unit. The missiles may be as cheap as $19,000 if you average historical cost.

Since the US armed forces bought something like 200,000 and haven't remotely expended that number (gulf war I they fired 3000, and the active phase of Iraq II they fired 560 - of course some are used in training etc), you don't actually buy a new one every time you fire one off.

It does cost to advance the system capability, though. Raytheon is getting $163 million for the new wireless TOW to be fielded by 2012.

Is a wireless TOW a round square? lol - well I suppose wireless, like wire-guided, starts with w. But maybe they should be TOR - tube launched, optically tracked, radio guided.

Hell if i know man, i never saw a actual javeline missle in Iraq, just the CLU. Now when i went to the Javelin class i saw everything that deals with the Javeline missle system. **** i just remembered we actually did use 1 CLU in my armory. We had it out at CP22A on MSR Tampa. We used it for CP (Check Point) security at night. It has white hot vision, and you can see farther out, it has a very nice view distance. Amazing how i can't remember little details until people talk about this stuff. I think i have alzheimers....
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Originally posted by Bradley Dick:

That's funny, we had a CLU posted up on an overpass at CP33 on MSR Tampa.

Yeah those things are really awesome, when i was bored i would watch the KBR convoy's a distance off. Then after i got shot at by the KBR convoy PSD. It wasn't fun anymore. hehe good times!
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That sounds like Tampa, patrolled by the trigger happy(including myself). We got some .50 sprayed at us on a dismounted operation by some Marine tankers. The M1's were even on the back of some HETs. It was only one burst, but it still wasn't cool.

[ August 29, 2007, 05:34 PM: Message edited by: Bradley Dick ]

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I was at a conference where a LTC related a story of some sniper that was harrassing them in An Najaf. The angles were wrong for just about everything that wouldn't flatten the whole building, and going in directly to clear him off the roof was not a possibility for some reason. So a Javelin gunner comes up and says, "hey, can I try to take him out with my Javelin? I'm not supposed to fire this unless I've got permission". "Hell yeah, give it a try". The gunner was overjoyed that he was finally going to use the thing. The LTC said that afterwards they went up to the roof and found bits of the sniper and that was all. He was impressed :D

Steve

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BTW, the Javelin CLU is supposed to be used in Peeping Tom Mode smile.gif It is actually one of the selling points. As you guys who have used them can attest, it's the best thing a grunt has to see in the dark.

I've only used the Javelin simulator, so besides being able to say that it is uncomfortable as HELL to have a full rig on your shoulder for 5 minutes while in the correct seated pose, I can't add much to the first hand discussion. Oh, other than to back up reports from the front that the thing is a "piece of piss" to use. I don't know what Javelin gunnery class is like, because the thing is damned easy to use even after only a few minutes instruction! Hey, if a Colonel can instruct a civi in 5 minutes how to use a $125k piece of hardware it can't be all that difficult to use :D My proud moment was hitting a BMP-1 behind a hill by using the dead reckoning feature. If my legs weren't so cramped up I would have stood and took a bow ;)

Steve

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Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

... The LTC said that afterwards they went up to the roof and found bits of the sniper and that was all ...

Morbid conclusion: neither roof nor building collapsed. A toned-down Javelin would significantly impact gameplay!

Best regards,

Thomm

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Originally posted by Rollstoy:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Battlefront.com:

... The LTC said that afterwards they went up to the roof and found bits of the sniper and that was all ...

Morbid conclusion: neither roof nor building collapsed. A toned-down Javelin would significantly impact gameplay!

Best regards,

Thomm </font>

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I liked the two 90mm recoilless rifles I had in my combat engineer platoon.

They made more noise at the firing line than at the receiving end. You could get a nosebeleed just being nearby when they fired. "Backblast Area Clear!" was no joke.

But that was back in the '80s and we never got to use them against real targets.

Anyone here have any operational experience with the US 90mm RR?

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The TOW is an expensive system, in particular the thermal sight. But when shooting it most of the system stays with the operator. That's because it is guided (via wire) by an operator that has a screen in front of his nose.

Using the Javelin means you shoot many of the most valuable parts of the system at the enemy. In particular all the vision equipment to stay on target goes right along.

That's why although the unit cost purchase cost looks comparable the cost per shot is not.

[ September 01, 2007, 09:36 PM: Message edited by: Redwolf ]

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Semi-Automatic Command to Line Of Sight (SACLOS) missiles are all very well in asymmetric warfare, but with comparable forces, when the launch signature is frequently large and the gunner has to remain in the same position and guide it all the way in for as much as 15 seconds, you run a very large risk of attracting counter fire and losing the launcher, the crew and the missile.

Javelin has an IIR seeker in the nose, and some clever electronics inside it to 'lock-on', but the CLU has all the costly stuff, including a much more capable thermal imager than the missile.

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