javelin
Javelin anti-tank missile is a portable anti-tank missile developed by the United States, which is not only used for shoulder-mounted launch, but also can be mounted on wheeled or amphibious vehicles for launch. Both anti-helicopter capabilities. Development began in June 1989, and 1996 was officially installed. Infrared focal plane array seeker is a new type of anti-tank missile with automatic guidance, which has the ability to fight day and night and ignore after launch, with a range of 2000 meters. The whole weapon system consists of missiles and launchers. The total weight of the system is 22.5 kg, the bullet diameter is 1 14 mm, the bullet length is 957 mm, and the bullet weight is1/0.8 kg. Tandem warhead attacks the target, 750 mm vertical armor-breaking, and image infrared homing guidance. Two-stage solid propellers are adopted.
Javelin is the fourth generation anti-tank missile developed by the United States in the late 1980s. It was officially installed on 1996, replacing the existing "Dragon" individual anti-tank missile, which can effectively attack the latest tank targets. Developed countries: American name: "Javelin" anti-tank missile development unit: Lockheed Martin and Raytheon joint development status: in service.
Development background
Although the United States is a country with the most advanced military technology, its army has not had several satisfactory infantry anti-tank missiles since the 1960s. The SS- 1 1 anti-tank missile developed by France was first introduced by the US military. However, this kind of missile is quite troublesome to use and is not suitable for infantry to carry and fight. Usually installed on helicopters or jeeps. During the Vietnam War, the US military's UH- 1 helicopter carried this missile. Later, because the missile's range was too short, the helicopter had to be close to the fire point of the Vietnamese army before it could be launched, so it was quickly abandoned. The missile installed on the jeep, due to the high temperature airflow at the tail when launching, also requires the shooter to stay away from the launcher, which often leads to the shooter's inability to quickly determine the missile and target position. This is the so-called downwind problem. In the 1967 campaign, there were many cases in which the US military failed to catch the launched missiles in time, resulting in the missiles flying out of control and hitting the ground.
Two plans
In view of the dissatisfaction with the use of anti-tank missiles on the battlefield in Vietnam, the US military began to develop anti-tank missiles by itself in the mid-1960s. At that time, two kinds of missiles were put forward, among which the light anti-tank missile carried by individual soldiers was "Dragon" M-47 and the heavy anti-tank missile was "Tao" M-220. The downwind during launching is an important factor affecting the use of missiles and the control of missiles by shooters. Therefore, when designing these two kinds of missiles, the US military adopts tubular launch to eliminate the influence of downwind. A take-off gas generating electric charge is installed at the bottom of the launch tube. When launching, the missile body is pushed out of the launch tube by the take-off charge. After flying away from the shooter at a certain safe distance, the missile engine ignited and flew. The advantage of this launching method is that the shooter does not need to spend time capturing the missile position, so the shooting dead angle is very small. Both missiles adopt semi-automatic line-of-sight wired command and guidance, and are equipped with 1970 and 1974 active US troops respectively.
Dragon missile
As the first individual anti-tank missile of the US military, the "Dragon" missile was widely used in the front line of Vietnam at the beginning of its service. American infantry don't have many armored targets to deal with in Vietnam. Most Vietnamese tanks were destroyed by helicopter "Tao" missiles or air strikes, while infantry "Dragon" missiles were mostly used to deal with earthwork and bunkers in Vietnam. When attacking fixed targets, American infantry can use the "Dragon" missile with ease, but it is inconvenient to attack moving vehicles. American soldiers are extremely impatient with the repeated problems of the "Dragon" missile in battle and often abandon it in bunkers. The reason is that the "Dragon" missile uses a number of small solid rocket engines symmetrically arranged on the missile body, which are both the flight power and the control device of the missile. In flight, small and medium-sized engines are ignited in pairs. According to the missile guidance instructions, the ignition time is slightly different to adjust the missile trajectory. Although this guidance method has low cost and simple control, it is difficult to ensure the accuracy because it does not control the working time of solid motor. When shooting at moving targets such as Vietnamese cars and ships, missiles often swing greatly. Sadly, the US military was dissatisfied with the "Dragon" style and had to continue to use it for 25 years. For such a long time, the main anti-tank missile of the US Army relied on heavy-duty vehicle-mounted "pottery", and the "dragon" of individual soldiers was only bunker blasting equipment or long-range sniper rifle in the eyes of soldiers.
Color development method
1989, the U.S army, fed up with the present situation of infantry portable anti-tank missiles, put forward the requirement of developing new infantry anti-tank missiles, and at that time, major American companies bid in succession. In the end, javelin missiles become a hodgepodge of products integrated by major companies, but this method greatly shortens the research and development cycle and has high reliability. 1August, 992, the javelin missile was successfully tested for the first time. /kloc-0 was mass-produced in 1994, and/kloc-0 was deployed at Fort Benning Army Base in Georgia in 1996. Javelin is a milestone in the development history of anti-tank missiles, and it is an anti-tank missile that "does not care after launching". The US military believes that one of the main advantages of "no matter after launch" is that compared with beam steering guidance system and optical fiber guidance system, it greatly improves the survivability of combatants in close combat. During the whole flight of the missile, the operator is not required to stay at the launching position all the time, thus avoiding the killing of the anti-infantry fire of the other side. These are mainly used to deal with the firepower of anti-tank missile shooters, which usually comes suddenly about 7 seconds after the missile is launched. According to the actual combat experience, the Israelis have formulated a set of very effective tactics to kill anti-tank missile shooters. In previous wars, the tactics of Israeli armored forces to suppress anti-tank missile units in time by distributing observation angles and fire lines in March were very successful.
operating characteristic
Control and guidance
Javelin missile system is mainly composed of launch packaging tube, missile and aiming control unit. The reason why it can be ignored after launch is mainly due to the focal plane thermal imaging seeker and image recognition processing in the glass cover of the missile nose cone. This is a 64×64 array of elements of mercury, cadmium and tellurium, and it is very sensitive to infrared radiation in the 8- 12 micron band, which has stronger anti-interference ability than the 3-5 micron band. Before shooting, the shooter takes off the front cover of the launcher, the aiming control unit aims at the target, and presses the locking shutter after finding the target. At this point, the target image is the blueprint of missile attack. After the missile is launched, the image characteristics of the target, whether moving or static, are constantly changing in the imaging seeker, and the processing unit automatically identifies and tracks the target by relying on the correlation of these characteristic signals in constant change. The seeker of javelin missile benefits from the technical reserve of terminal sensitive bomb developed by the US military for many years. It is much easier to find targets within the range of anti-tank missiles than long-range rockets or howitzers, so the guidance of javelin is very reliable.
Participation mode
Javelin system has two modes of engagement, the top attack mode is mainly used for anti-main battle tanks and armored vehicles, and the front attack mode is mainly used for attacking fortifications and unarmed targets. This missile is launched at the top attack angle of 18 degrees, and the inertial booster only takes a few seconds to complete the boost. When shooting, the aiming control unit measures the distance of the target, automatically controls the ballistic height of the missile, and ensures that the target is accurately inserted into the viewing angle of the seeker. Because the javelin missile adopts tube firing and automatic homing, it can automatically guide the target immediately after shooting. However, the initial velocity of the missile just out of the barrel is low and the rudder effect is not obvious. Therefore, the flight action in front of 100 meters is relatively slow, and you can't turn at a large angle. Therefore, the first 100 meter range is determined as the minimum shooting distance. Within this distance, the missile can't guarantee an effective hit, only equivalent to a rocket. Javelin missiles have a maximum range of over 2500 meters. The aiming control unit of the missile has four, nine white aiming and four infrared aiming channels at night.
bullet
The warhead of javelin missile fully considers the armor against the main battle tank. Its warhead is a precursor (pre-charge) warhead, and the pre-charge is mainly used to destroy the reaction armor, while LX- 14 contained in the lining of its nose cone molybdenum sleeve is mainly used to destroy the main armor. There is no additional armor on the top of the main battle tank in many countries, while there is reactive armor on the top of the turret of the main battle tank in Russia. The appearance of "javelin" will attract countries' attention to the top armor of main battle tanks. Javelin missile warheads can also be used to attack various bunkers and low-speed helicopters. Because javelin missiles are self-guided, their flying speed is faster than wire-guided anti-tank missiles, which can meet the needs of attack helicopters flying slowly at a speed of 50-60 kilometers per hour.
operating characteristic
Javelin system is a portable weapon of the army, which is light in weight and small in size. The whole system, including the guidance system and the main components of shooting control, weighs about 22.7 kilograms, including passive target recognition, shooting control components and a comprehensive day (4 times) and night (4-9 times) magnifying sight. Projectile weight 1 1.8kg, length 108cm, bullet diameter12.6cm. The launch tube weight is 4. 1 kg, length19.8cm. The double warhead design can detonate the surface protection of the target at the same time, and the other warhead penetrates the armor and is deeply destroyed. Each system has two performances, one is used to attack the roof of armored vehicles, and the other is used to attack helicopters and bunkers. Shooters can shoot standing, kneeling, lying down and sitting.
Different from other anti-tank missiles, javelin anti-tank missiles don't detonate directly after aiming at the target, but aim and lock the target and then eject from the launcher, with the ejection distance of about 10 m, then the missile engine adjusts its ignition attitude and climbs vertically to a height of about 100 to 200 m, and then descends vertically. The infrared guidance at the front end of the missile can quickly find and aim at the previously locked target. Then rush to the target at full speed, pierce and detonate the tank at extremely fast speed, and kill the target. Even some skilled veterans can shoot down low-flying helicopters and other low-speed low-flying planes with javelin anti-tank missiles.
System improvement
After the 1995 Javelin system was equipped with the US military, the military put forward an improvement plan according to the problems found in use. The improvement mainly includes reducing the missile weight to 15.9 kg and producing a reusable 6.6 kg command launch control device. In addition, the main flight engine of the missile has also been modified, using new booster charges and flight propulsion charges to increase the range to 4000 meters. The military suggests replacing the 64×64 array with the 128× 128 focal plane infrared imaging detector array to increase the detection distance of the seeker, strengthen the anti-jamming ability, and introduce automatic tracking decision-making and trajectory selection functions to increase the attack ability of the weapon system to the targets behind hidden objects and targets equipped with active protection systems. The improvement scheme of aiming control command device includes adding automatic target prompt, that is, adding an information data terminal to automatically display the area where the target may appear in the shooter's field of vision on its display screen. The improvement of optical channel is mainly to strengthen the functions of image enhancement and amplification, autofocus, automatic zoom, digital image self-care and automatic stabilization. After this improvement, the shooter can get a wider range of target activities and early warning, which is very beneficial to the choice of combat targets. In the third stage of the javelin improvement plan, the US military may focus on improving the field maintenance performance of the aiming control command device, and improving the automation and reliability of the device, such as field processing and field integration, automatic electronic focusing and automatic stabilization, focusing, contrast and optical brightness level. The reliability demonstration of "Javelin" LRIP has been completed. According to statistics, the average first hit probability of this system is above 94%. In the test of 1998, a total of 70 missiles hit the turret of the target car.
Equipment export
On 1995, the us army received the first batch of javelin missile systems, which were first equipped in the 82nd airborne division. 1997 began mass production and equipment. Javelin anti-tank missiles are being mass-produced, equipped with the US Army, the US Marine Corps and the Australian Armed Forces, and have been widely used in combat operations. In Iraq, the United States and its allies used more than 65,438+0,000 missiles. In May 2005, the US Army signed another contract with the Javelin Missile Joint Venture jointly established by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, valued at 95 million US dollars, for the purchase of 120 command launcher and 1038 missile. The missile was equipped with American and Australian troops, and 10 countries chose javelin missiles. In addition, many countries in the world are evaluating its performance, so that it can be used to equip the ground and offshore platforms and protect the army's tanks, armored vehicles and other weapon platforms more effectively.
Actual combat performance
A tank hit by a javelin.
Javelin missiles were widely used in the Iraq war. In the news footage of the attack on Baghdad, many American infantry fighting vehicles and cavalry fighting vehicles replaced the twin-mounted "Tao" missile originally installed on the left side of the turret with a quadruple-mounted "javelin". American mechanized infantry also destroyed Iraqi bunkers and observation posts with javelin missiles and even used them to attack Iraqi snipers. Because javelin can attack targets 65 meters away, it is more suitable for fighting in narrow areas, such as street fighting. However, the biggest advantage of American javelin equipment in combat is that it can leave the hiding place immediately after launch, while the Iraqi shooter who uses the cornet must aim at the target until the missile hits. The biggest disadvantage of tubular anti-tank missile is that the tail flame exposes the shooter's position. Usually, it takes nearly 10 seconds for a line-guided missile to hit from launch, and it is inevitable that it will not be killed by gunfire if it stays in the launch position for too long. The tactics adopted by Israel often cause the missile shooter of the Egyptian army to be killed by the shrapnel of the tank gun a few seconds after the launch, and the missile loses control and crashes into the ground. In order to reduce the exposure time of shooters, the United States and Russia adopt different ideas. Javelin was born in the United States "regardless after launch", and cornet was born in Russia by increasing flight speed and reducing exposure time. Compared with the Russian-made cornet anti-tank missile equipped by the Iraqi army, the javelin has a shorter range. However, the US military has always believed that it is difficult for infantry observation equipment to capture targets beyond 4,000 meters, so the range of individual weapons does not need to be too far. Beyond this distance, artillery is usually called to strike. On the battlefield in Iraq, it is not only a confrontation between countries, but also a confrontation between technology and ideas. I don't know if we can really tell the revolutionary achievements of two different anti-tank missiles in Mesopotamia.