Originally Posted by jackehammond

Dear Members,

Finally, Raytheon the company that bought Hughes Missile (and they also bought Texas Instruments who R&D and produced the Javelin) is now working on a private project to develop a wireless TOW that uses an unjammable radio guidance system. Full circle folks. The Russians orginally developed their first antitank missile with RF guidance and then switched to wire guidances.

Jack E. Hammond

http://forums.military.com/groupee/f...br /> 8500001

Jack, I was working at TI when Raytheon bought us. We and Hughes were building the TOW and Javelin, among other missiles, and that's the reason Raytheon wanted us. Then they bought Hughes and pretty well cornered the market on missiles. Our Missile Factory in Lewisville, TX was shut down and sold after the missile business was moved to Tucson. There is still some bitterness in Hughes and RTIS as they called us. I worked in R&D and also on the TOW system for a short period. I know one thing, don't open a guidance wire coil if you don't like surprises.

Dear Missileer,

Did you know that Israel copied the TOW and are now making a version that has laser-beam riding? It is for export and many think the latest Chinese antitank missile which photos have shown is the MAPATS from Israel. Also Iran showed a TOW missile they say they are now producing. And of all things Iran is making copies of the DRAGON??? WHY???

Jack E. Hammond

NOTE> It is up to you members. But a first name would be nice in the ending of messages. Answering to screen names is so sterile.

Originally Posted by jackehammond

Dear Missileer,

Did you know that Israel copied the TOW and are now making a version that has laser-beam riding? It is for export and many think the latest Chinese antitank missile which photos have shown is the MAPATS from Israel. Also Iran showed a TOW missile they say they are now producing. And of all things Iran is making copies of the DRAGON??? WHY???

Jack E. Hammond

NOTE> It is up to you members. But a first name would be nice in the ending of messages. Answering to screen names is so sterile.

Well, most of these weapons systems, as you well know, are only as good as their guidance and information gathering systems. We've been working on the TOW since the `60s or even `50s and before that most rockets as we called them were dumb and used LOS which caused a lot of glancing hits or misses. If you are starting now or even 20 years ago, you're behind and losing ground fast in R&D. So. it's grab something you can wrap your ability to mimic around like a Dragon and reverse engineer. But in more complex systems like Javelin, the receiver and cooler/detector or cold finger are a physics nightmare. The sensor array is most important in laser systems because of each material used to sense,correct angle of arrival so on and so on. Mavericks were only "perfected" since the `90s so they wouldn't target hot rocks. I could go on and on but may get into something that is against company or Governmental policy. I heard from some of the field engineers that the troops prefer the TOW over the Javelin.

Larry

Originally Posted by jackehammond

Dear Missileer,

Did you know that Israel copied the TOW and are now making a version that has laser-beam riding? It is for export and many think the latest Chinese antitank missile which photos have shown is the MAPATS from Israel. Also Iran showed a TOW missile they say they are now producing. And of all things Iran is making copies of the DRAGON??? WHY???

Jack E. Hammond

NOTE> It is up to you members. But a first name would be nice in the ending of messages. Answering to screen names is so sterile.

Quite intesest that Iran is making a copy of the DRAGON. Why do it though?

Adam