BGM-71 TOW

AH-1W Super Cobra

OH-58D Kaiowa Warrior

The BGM-71 TOW missile is the main heavy anti-tank guided missile of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, and is used in vehicle and helicopter installations. It was produced in very large numbers, and is in wide use in many countries.

In late 1961, the U.S. Army initiated studies for a possible replacement for the French SS.10 (MGM-21) and SS.11 (AGM-22) anti-tank missiles then in U.S. Army service. The studies called for a tube-launched, optically-tracked, and wire-guided missile (hence the acronym TOW), and design contracts were awarded to three companies. Hughes was eventually awarded the prime development contract for the BGM-71 missile, and from 1963 until 1968, TOW was developed in parallel for both ground- and air-launched applications. Missile rounds used in the development phase included the XBGM-71A prototype tactical round, the XBTM-71A unarmed training round, and the XBEM-71A, which was equipped with special telemetry electronics for test and evaluation purposes. In June 1968, the first full-scale production contract for the TOW was awarded to Hughes. In 1970, the BGM-71A missile (and the BTM-71A training round) was first fielded by operational U.S. Army ground troops, replacing the MGM-32 Entac missile and the M140 106 mm recoilless rifle. In 1972, the TOW was deployed for combat use in South-East Asia.

The TOW anti-tank missile of Iran-Contra fame was introduced for service in the US Army in 1970. Current versions are capable of penetrating more than 30 inches of armor, or "any 1990s tank," at a maximum range of more than 3,000 meters. It can be fired by infantrymen using a tripod, as well from vehicles and helicopters, and can launch 3 missiles in 90 seconds. It is primarily used in antitank warfare, and is a command to line of sight, wire-guided weapon. TOW is used to engage and destroy enemy armored vehicles, primarily tanks. Secondary mission is to destroy other point targets such as non-armored vehicles, crew-served weapons and launchers. This system is designed to attack and defeat tanks and other armored vehicles. The system will operate in all weather conditions and on the "dirty" battlefield.

In May 1972, U.S. soldiers initially used the TOW in combat during the Vietnam War. This was the very first time that American troops had ever fired an American-made missile under wartime conditions. The system has also seen action in various clashes between Israel and Syria as well as during the Iran/Iraq war. During the Gulf War, in Saudi Arabia the system was represented by the HMMWV with the light forces, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle with the heavy forces, Improved TOW Vehicle with some of the forces, and the Cobra-mounted version. The TOW was one of the earliest missile systems to arrive in SWA because of the large Iraqi armored threat it was deployed with some of the first units in Saudi: the 82nd Airborne Division, the 24th Mechanized Division and the101st Airborne Division. Thousands of missiles and hundreds of launchers were used during Operation Desert Storm. Forces of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, also had TOW at their disposal.

Early reports focused on the problems being experienced by US Army and Marine Corps units in hitting targets during live-fire exercises because soldiers [lacked experience firing the weapon, as well as Iraqi use of "dazzlers" intended to interfere with the guidance of Army TOW missiles and other antitank missiles. But the TOW during ODS was a primary killer of Iraqi tanks, armored personnel carriers,and other vehicles. Before the start of the coalition air campaign in January 1991, Army and Marine Corps planners noted a trend of improvement as more and more units [had] the opportunity to practice firing the TOW. The Iraqi use of dazzlers also proved to be of little concern to coalition commanders. The purpose of the dazzler is to confuse the missile guidance system so it loses track of the missile. It did not work against the TOWs used in Southwest Asia. There were no reports since the war that any of these were effective in any way against TOWs.

Before the start of the actual ground offensive, US Marine units successfully employed the TOW against various Iraqi targets. On 18 January 1991, newspapers reported that U.S. Marine Corps AH-1T Cobra helicopter gunships destroyed an Iraqi command post following Iraq's sporadic shelling of the Khafji area near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. Four Cobra gunships destroyed a building used as an Iraqi command post with TOW missiles. Accounts told by Gulf War veterans who witnessed the TOW in action during the fighting revealed several instances where TOWs did things that surprised the engineers who designed them more than the soldiers who fired them. TOW missiles proved to be a determining factor in the first ground engagement of Operation Desert Storm. During the Battle of Khafji, which took place before the start of the actual ground offensive, the TOW demonstrated a pretty unique ability. The Saudis fought Iraqi tanks with TOW missiles and drove them out of the city. At one point in the battle, the Saudis saw Iraqi soldiers on top of a water tower. Not wishing to blow up the tower, the Saudis fired a TOW, blew the ladder off the tower and left the Iraqis stranded until the end of the battle." The lethality of the TOW missile was proven beyond doubt during the 100-hour ground campaign when one of the antitank munitions fired by US troops went right through the tank it was aimed at and penetrated another tank parked next to it. Another TOW went through a six foot dirt berm and knocked out an Iraqi armored personnel carrier on the otherside. In both instances, the TOW performed a feat which it supposedly was incapable of accomplishing.

Even without these rather unusual and certainly unexpected displays of its effectiveness, the TOW did better than expected. The system's deadly accuracy proved to be unstoppable even out to its maximum effective range and under degraded visibility conditions. TOW was real powerful hitting because you could tell as soon as it hit, the vehicle was dead. TOW missiles were able to kill targets while the Bradley was on the move.

The basic TOW Weapon System was fielded in 1970. Manufactured by Hughes Aircraft Company, the TOW is the most widely distributed anti-tank guided missile in the world with over 500,000 built and in service in the U.S. and 36 other countries. The TOW has extensive combat experience in Vietnam and the Middle East. Iran may have obtained 1,750 or more TOWs and used TOWs against Iraqi tanks in the 1980s. The TOW 2 launcher is the most recent launcher upgrade. It is compatible with all TOW missiles. The TOW 2 Weapon System is composed of a reusable launcher, a missile guidance set, and sight system. The system can be tripod mounted. However because it is heavy, it is generally employed from the HMMWV. The missile has a 20-year maintenance-free storage life. All versions of the TOW missile can be fired from the current launcher.

The TOW is a crew portable, vehicle-mounted, heavy anitarmor weapon system consisting of a launcher and one of five versions of the TOW missile. It is designed to defeat armored vehicles and other targets such as field fortifications from ranges up to 3,750 meters. After firing the missile, the gunner must keep the cross hairs of the sight centered on the target to ensure a hit. The system will operate in all weather conditions in which the gunner can see a target throughout the missile flight by using either a day or night sight.

The TOW missile can be fired from tube launchers installed on vehicles, helicopters, or on a tripod on the ground. The BGM-71 is loaded into the launcher from behind, the missile container acting as a launch tube extension. As soon as the operator has identified a target using the launcher's telescopic sight, he can fire the missile. A very-short duration (0.05 s) rocket motor ejects the missile from the tube, and the mid-body stabilization fins and the control fins on the tail flip out. After a safe distance is reached, the solid-fuel main boost motor is ignited, and accelerates the missile to a speed of about Mach 0.9. The motor exhausts are on the side, because the tail is used to spool out the guidance wire. After launch, the operator simply has to keep the cross-hairs of his sight pointing at the target, and the guidance system will automatically transmit corrective commands to the system through the wire. The TOW is controlled in flight by its four gas-operated movable tail fins. The high-explosive shaped-charge warhead of the BGM-71A detonates on impact, and can penetrate armour with a thickness of about 600 mm. Minimum range for the TOW is about 65 m (70 yds), and maximum range is limited by the length of the guidance wire, which is 3000 m (3280 yds) for the BGM-71A.

The development of the airborne TOW applications lagged slightly behind, after the XM26 armament subsystem (TOW on UH-1B helicopters) was terminated in 1968 in favour of a TOW/AH-56 Cheyenne combination. In March 1972, however, the Army began the development of an improved XM65 TOW/AH-1 Cobra armament subsystem, and later that year, the whole AH-56 program was cancelled. Also in 1972, the experimental XM26 was deployed to Vietnam as a short-term emergency measure. The helicopter-borne TOW systems use special stabilized sights to allow accurate tracking.

The BGM-71B, which replaced the BGM-71A on the production line in 1976, was a version with an extended range. It was essentially identical to the BGM-71A except for a longer (3750 m (4100 yds)) guidance wire. The BGM-71B was mainly developed for the airborne application, to allow for a greater stand-off range of the helicopters. The BTM-71B was the extended-range training round.

In 1973, development of the Texas Instruments AN/TAS-4 thermal night sight for TOW began. This system, which became operational in January 1980, gave the TOW a viable night-attack capability.

In 1978, the ITOW (Improved TOW) program was initiated to develop a TOW variant effective against new types of armour. The BGM-71C ITOW reached IOC (Initial Operational Capability) in April 1981. It had a new copper lined warhead of slightly larger diameter, and also an extendable nose probe fuze. The probe extended after missile launch, and ensured that the warhead detonated at a stand-off distance from the target for optimum efficiency of the shaped charge. The new warhead and fuze improve the armour penetrating capability to about 700 mm. The BTM-71C is the corresponding training round.

The further improved BGM-71D TOW 2 was first delivered to U.S. Army and USMC units in 1983. It has a still larger and heavier warhead, which increases the diameter of the warhead section to that of the main missile body. It also has a slightly longer nose probe, an improved double-base rocket motor, and a new countermeasures resistant digital guidance system. Armour penetration capability is increased to about 800 mm. Although I haven't found any reference to it, there is probably also a BTM-71D training round for the TOW 2.

In 1987, the production switched to the BGM-71E TOW 2A, which had been developed since 1984. The TOW 2A is designed to defeat tanks equipped with ERA (Explosive Reactive Armour) blocks. It has a small shaped-charge warhead in the nose probe, which explodes the ERA when it's hit, so that the main warhead remains effective against up to 1000 mm of conventional armour behind the ERA. The BGM-71E also adds ballast to the tail to counter the added weight in the nose probe, and has a timing device to detonate the small primary and large main warheads at the optimum interval. The BTM-71E is the TOW 2A training round. Together with earlier versions, the TOW 2A was extensively used in Operation Desert Storm, where more then 3000 TOW missiles (mostly BGM-71D/E) were fired.

In September 1987, Hughes was awarded a development contract for the BGM-71F TOW 2B, which eventually entered service in 1992, after limited production had begun in 1990. The main new feature is the Overflight Top Attack (OTA) capability. The TOW 2B has a completely redesigned nose section, which includes two downward sequentially fired tantalum EFP (Explosive Formed Projectile) warheads, and an active dual-mode (optical laser/magnetic sensor) fuze. The laser and magnetic fuze work together to detect the height profile and the large metal mass of a tank, detonating the warheads exactly above the target. The guidance system is also updated, flying the missile at a preset height above the operator's line of sight, so that the latter can still point his cross-hairs directly at the target. The BGM-71F does not replace but supplement the BGM-71E. The designation BGM-71G was allocated to variant of the BGM-71F with a different armour-piercing warhead, but this version was apparently not produced. In 1996, Hughes offered to retrofit some existing TOWs with a new warhead against Bunkers, Light Armour And Masonry (BLAAM). Prototypes of the BLAAM warhead were tested, but no operational missiles were retrofitted.

In 1989, Hughes demonstrated a variant of the TOW 2 with a wireless millimeter wave data link, but this version, sometimes referred to as TOW 2N, was not procured. Also in 1989, a new Kollsman AN/UAS-12C night vision sight entered production, as an improved alternative to the older AN/TAS-4.

There have been various proposals to develop a fire-and-forget successor to the TOW. An IIR (Imaging Infrared) seeker was tested by Texas Instruments in the early 1990s, but not adapoted. The FOTT (Follow-On To TOW) program, begun in 1996 as a design competition for a TOW successor, was cancelled without a result in 1998. However, efforts to develop a fire-and-forget guidance method either as an upgrade for existing TOW rounds or for new missiles continued, and at that time it is hoped that such a system may be ready in the 2005/2007 time frame. Beginning in 2000, Raytheon was developing the TOW-FF (TOW Fire-and-Forget), which is a TOW with an IIR focal plane seeker, and a wireless data link for optional command guidance. However, funding limitations led to the cancellation of the TOW-FF program in 2002.

The BGM-71H variant, also known as TOW Bunker Buster, is a BGM-71E TOW 2A modified with a new warhead specifically designed for penetration of thick masonry and reinforced concrete bunkers. Development of this version began in mid-2001, and it is currently in production.

The TOW system is used on the HMMWV, the M151 jeep, the armored personnel carrier, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV) COBRA helicopters, the ITV, and the US Marine Corps light armored vehicle.

Considerable improvements have been made to the missile since 1970. There are six missiles available for the TOW. Three of the five TOW missile versions--Basic TOW, Improved TOW and TOW 2--are no longer being produced for US forces. However, these versions are still used by 40 allied countries.