I can provide pictures if necessary but I was using the I-TOWs in an AH-1e and noticed I was losing them to IRCM despite them being SACLOS/Wire-Guided. While it isn’t very common it is still irritating nonetheless. Any chance of a patch or at least some remedy to the issue?
This description does not fully disclose the principle of operation of ATGMs with semi-automatic (SACLOS) guidance.
Many SACLOS weapons are based on an infrared seeker combined with an operator’s sight or sighting tube. The seeker tracks the missile either by the hot exhaust from its rocket motor or by flares that are attached to the missile’s airframe and measures the angle between the missile and the operator’s sight centerline. This signal is sent to the missile, often using thin metal wires or a radio link, which causes it to lean back towards the center of the line of sight.
If a missile has already been fired at the tank, an optical suppression system is used - powerful infrared searchlights of the infrared jammer transmit a false copy of the signal from the missile to the projectile control coordinator, as a result of which erroneous coordinates are transmitted to the missile itself and it goes off course.
Of all the above, only the presence of wires or radio commands on ATGMs does not indicate the ability of such systems to counteract infrared jammer.
This might be the case but the I-TOW is purely wire-guided; The “O” in TOW denotes it’s purely optical guidance. It would not be affected by IR disruptance.
How is it optically guided
By sight for adjustment no? It is guided by physical wires. I will try and find some better sourcing for it.
As a note, its probable that IRCM devices can jam a broad IR spectrum and various encodings more than publicly announced or can be readily adapted to do so.
Don’t ask to see my sekrut dokuments.
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The problem isn’t the wire guidance, the problem is how the system tracks the missle. The optics look for the IR signature of the missile to make corrections to the flight path through the wire. When IRCM systems give off their false signatures it disrupts how the optics track the missile because it can’t differentiate between the missiles IR signature and the false IR signatures. That causes the missile guidance to be disrupted.
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Ah, my apologies. I didn’t trust the other guy tbh because his source was literally reddit. is there a way to close this to save a mod needing to do it.
I’m sure there are upgraded TOW versions out there that don’t suffer from it, but NATO equipment needs to be 20 years behind Russian equipment it seems whilst they get perfectly accurate beam riding missiles.
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It is happening even with tow 2
TOW-2 it’s in the brochure (also modeled ingame)
The missile is fitted with a high-intensity thermal beacon, which provides a long-wave infrared tracking source and a xenon beacon for short-wave tracking. This dual-tracking system provides increased resistance to electro-optical and infrared countermeasures.
Do you have a video of this happening
No ,was in match with US and guy with Bradley missed all his missiles on Sinai attacking Russians ,all of them go in fart mode and miss.
Will check mine with wiesel later
Which Bradley cause the M3 doesn’t have TOW-2s lol
It doesn’t happen with the M3A3 Bradley with TOW-2s.
Well it happened to that one ,think it was 10.0 one
Not on wiesel either
Does to Bagel and rak as well but they are not tow 2’s
It doesn’t happen to the M3A3 and it’s TOW 2s. I use the vehicle regularly and have tested in test drive against the T-90 on more than one occasion because of this issue. It does not happen with that platform.