Javelin is a medium-range anti-tank guided missile developed by a joint venture between Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The missile is currently in service with U.S. forces and has been battle tested in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Considered the best shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon in the world, the Javelin uses a long-wave infrared seeker to guide the missile for the destroying battle tanks, bunkers, buildings, small ships and low-flying helicopters with a high probability of hit. It can also be launched from tripods, light armored vehicles, trucks, and remote-controlled vehicles, and has the maximum striking range of 2,500 meters.
The “Javelin” anti-tank weapon is a portable anti-tank missile developed by the United States. It can not only be used through shoulder launch method, but can also be installed on wheeled or amphibious vehicles to launch and destroy enemy targets. The missile development began in June 1989, and it was officially adopted into service in 1996. The Javelin makes use of infrared focal plane array seeker, it is a new type of anti-tank missile that has fully automatic guidance system.
It has the ability to fight day and night and forget after launch. The full weapon system package consists of missiles and launchers. The total weight of the system is 22.5 kg, the diameter of the missile is 114 mm, the length of the missile is 957 mm, and the weight of the missile is 11.8 kg. The ATGMs uses Image infrared homing guidance system and a two-stage solid thruster for propulsion.
In view of the fact that the use of anti-tank missiles on the Vietnam battlefield made the US military very dissatisfied, they began to develop their own in the mid-1960s. At that time, two missiles were proposed, the light anti-tank missile carried by individual soldiers was the “Dragon” M-47, and the heavy vehicle anti-tank missile was the “Tao” M-220. The tail wind during launch is an important factor affecting the use of the missile and the shooter’s control of the missile.
Therefore, the U.S. military uses tube launch mechanism to eliminate the impact of the tail wind in the design of these two types of missiles. A take-off gas generating charge is installed at the bottom of the launch tube. When launching, the projectile is pushed out of the launch tube by the take-off charge.
After flying a certain safe distance from the shooter, the missile engine ignites and flies. The advantage of this launch method is that the shooter does not have to spend time to capture the missile position, so the dead angle of the shot is very small. Both missiles are guided by semi-automatic line-of-sight wire commands, and were in service with U.S. troops in 1970 and 1974, respectively.
Unlike other anti-tank missiles, the Javelin anti-tank missile does not fly straight to the target and detonate after aiming at the target, but ejects the launch tube after aiming and locking the target, and the ejection distance is about 10 meters, and then the missile engine ignites and automatically adjusts the attitude and climb vertically to a height of about 100 to 200 meters before descending vertically.
At the same time, the infrared guidance located at the front of the missile quickly finds and aims at the previously locked target, and then rushes to the target at full speed to penetrate and detonate the tank at an extremely fast speed, completing the top attack. Even some skilled veterans can use Javelin anti-tank missiles to shoot down low-flying helicopters and other slow-flying low-flying aircrafts.