Anti-Tank Missiles Arrive in Ukraine

choi

News in chronological order.

(1)
(a) Humeyra Pamuk and Dmitry Antonov, US Responds to Russia Security Demands as Ukraine Tensions Mount. Reuters, Jan 26, 2022.
https://www.reuters.com/world/eu ... sonally-2022-01-26/
("Russia has demanded NATO pull back troops and weapons from eastern Europe and bar its neighbour Ukraine, a former Soviet state, from ever joining. Washington and its NATO allies reject that position")

My comment: Maybe this is the casus belli.
(b) Holly Ellyatt, Kremlin Offers Frosty Response to Blinken Letter as World Waits for Putin's Next Move. CNBC, Jan 27, 2022 (online)
("While President Vladimir Putin has read the documents and will take time to study them, 'it cannot be said that our views were taken into account, or that a readiness to take our concerns into account was demonstrated,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday," Jan 27)
(c) How Putin Is Using Russia’s Military as a Tool for Foreign Policy. New York Times, Jan 27, 2022 (online).


(2) Chris Pleasance, The World Holds Its Breath: Kremlin Says there's 'Not a Lot of Room for Optimism' After US Ambassador [to Moscow] Hand-Delivers Letter Dismissing Putin's Security Demands and British Troops Teach Ukrainians How to Use NLAW Anti-Tank Weapons. Daily Mail, Jab 27, 2022.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news ... curity-demands.html

My comment:
(a) I did not read the report. Rather. I was curious about "NLAW" anti0tank missiles.
(b) MBT LAW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBT_LAW
("The Main Battle Tank and Light Anti-tank Weapon (MBT LAW), also known as the NLAW, is a joint British [manufactured by Belfast-based Thales] and Swedish [designed by Saab] short-range fire-and-forget anti-tank missile system. Designed for use by infantry, the MBT LAW is shoulder fired and disposable, firing once before being disposed of. * * * It is a soft-launch system, allowing it to be used by infantry from within an enclosed space. In this system, the missile is first launched out of the launcher using a low powered ignition. After the missile travels several metres into flight, its main rocket ignites, propelling the missile from there on to the target. Guidance is obtained using predicted line of sight (PLOS). * * * entered service in 2009 as the 'Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon; (NLAW), to replace the British Army's existing LAW 80 system")
(c)
(i) NLAW. Saab, undated
https://www.saab.com/products/nlaw
("With a combat range of 20–800 m and a single shape charge, NLAW is the best anti-tank weapon for infantries and dismounted troops in complex terrain. * * * Extremely flexible, NLAW can attack from almost any position, from up high in a building to behind a tree or in a ditch. You can fire down 45 degrees and can shoot from inside a building, from a basement or from the second floor of a building out of the range of most tanks.   [sectional heading:] Hitting the target[.] One of the major challenges facing anti-tank weaponry is hitting the target when obstructed by countermeasures and obstacles, such as other vehicles, heat sources and power lines. No lock-on signature is required. The operator simply tracks the target for a few seconds before firing and NLAW does the rest')

This section is taken out for individual display, to avoid confusion (due to its length):  

"OTA and DA in one[.]

"With selectable Overfly Top Attack (OTA) against armoured targets and Direct Attack (DA) for non-armoured opponents and troops inside buildings, NLAW fires perfectly in confined spaces.

"NLAW's OTA function is effective at just 20 m, making it ideal for short-range combat, even where the tank is behind cover. Its armour-piercing warhead can destroy heavily protected MBTs in a single shot. The system is also extremely effective when the operator can only see a tiny portion of the target. The operator can simply aim at the visible part and fire. The missile will travel one metre above the line of sight before it takes the tank out from above.

"In DA mode, NLAW can be used against soft targets like trucks, buses, cars and helicopters. When fired directly through a window into a building, [glass] fragments will cause significant damage [to personnel inside].

"The ideal mix of PLOS guidance and OTA delivers easy handling, great accuracy and high kill probability, every time.
   
(A) shaped charge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaped_charge
(B) "from the second floor of a building out of the range of most tanks"
• M1A2 Abrams tank's 120 mm L/44 M256A1 smoothbore gun (or called cannon) has an effective range of 3 to 4 km. But distance is not what the quotation has in mind. I fail to find in the Web how high a tank can shoot with the M256A1 gun, but that is beside the point: a tank is also armed with a machine gun, which can shoot up. So I do not know why Saab says being situated on a second floor is out if range for a tank,
• smoothbore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoothbore
(section 2 Current use, section 2.2 Artillery: "The cannon made the transition from smoothbore firing cannonballs to rifled firing shells in the 19th century. However, to reliably penetrate the thick armor of modern armored vehicles many modern tank guns have moved back to smoothbore. These fire a very long, thin kinetic-energy projectile, too long in relation to its diameter to develop the necessary spin rate through rifling. Instead, kinetic energy rounds are produced as fin-stabilized darts. Not only does this reduce the time and expense of producing rifled barrels, it also reduces the need for replacement due to barrel wear")
• rifling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifling
("The spin imparted by rifling significantly improves the stability of the projectile, improving both range and accuracy")
• 115 MM, 120 MM & 125 MM Tank Guns. As Annex D in Chracterisation of Explosive Weapons. Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), February 2017
http://characterisationexplosive ... 2016/10/Annex-D.pdf
("This report covers tank guns of 115 mm, 120 mm, and 125 mm in calibre, which encompasses the majority of tank guns that have been produced since 1961, when the Soviet Union introduced the T-62 main battle tank (MBT). * * * Capable of very high precision in their direct fire role, tanks have nonetheless been involved extensively in attacks within populated areas. * * * The majority of modern tanks are fitted with smoothbore guns, which do not utilise rifled barrels in order to impart spin to projectiles as they are fired (see Annex B). A notable exception is the British Challenger 2 tank, which uses the 120 mm L30 rifled gun. Unlike many other militaries’ armoured units, the British Army continue to use a rifled gun, as their primary tank ammunition is of the high explosive squash-head (HESH) type. HESH ammunition is used both as a general-purpose high explosive projectile, and also against other tanks and armoured vehicles. When HESH ammunition is fired from a rifled barrel, spin imparted to the projectile helps ensure a predictable distribution of the plasticised explosive filler, and thus maximises its efficiency in the anti-tank role. The smoothbore design of most modern tank barrels makes it easier for tanks to fire missiles through the same barrel used to fire projectiles")
(C) At the bottom of this Web page is a link to "What is the ultimate tank killer." Click it and a new Web page appears, which is next.
(ii) What Is the Ultimate Tank Killer. Saab, Aug 25, 2020
https://www.saab.com/newsroom/st ... ltimate-tank-killer
("A typical soldier can be taught to use the system in an hour, and a single operator can fire the system. * * * Another key advantage is that NLAW doesn't use active target seeking, instead relying on 'predicted line of sight' [PLOS] targeting. 'If you have an active seeker, the target will detect this and deploy countermeasures,' says [Lars-Örjan] Hovbrandt[, Manager of Technical Sales Support for Ground Combat within Saab]. 'But the NLAW system is passive. Optical sensors detect the target and magnetic sensors rule out countermeasures and the missile hits the correct target.' * * * Yet another useful feature [beside Direct Attack and Overfly Top Attack modes] is the ability to select the distance at which the missile arms itself.  'Say you are in complex terrain where a number of vehicles have been hit and you have a burning vehicle [so infrared sensor for heat is useless] 50 metres in front of you and the true target is 150 metres away,' says Hovbrandt. 'You just switch over the arm distance to 100 metres. The missile will fly blind over the first target and then start looking for the target' ")
• For active and passive, see missile guidance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missile_guidance   
(section 3 GOT [go-onto-target] systems, section 3.2 Homing guidance, section 3.2.2 Radar homing (active and semi-active [missile head does not beam electromagnetic wave, but the launching platform (fighter jet or drone) does) and section 3.2,3 Passive homing
• Hence NLAW uses two sensors: optical and magnetic. How does these two sensors work, Saab does not tell you, which is understandable.
(d) Brett Tingley, This Dude Fished An Anti-Tank Missile's Tail Section out of The English Channel. The Drive, July 18, 2021 (in "The Warzone" section)
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war ... the-english-channel
("Operators must track a threat with the NLAW's onboard guidance system for three seconds before firing, at which point the missile will use predicted line of sight (PLOS) to guide itself towards its target. It has no infrared, TV, or radar sensors to track the target in flight. Instead, the PLOS system predicts where the target will be after the missile's short flight and it flies a tailored arch to that point")
(e)
(i) top attack
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_attack
("The top attack concept is fairly new and was first put into service by the Swedish in 1988 with the Bofors RBS 56 BILL top-attack anti-tank missile")
(A) Bofors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors
(1646- ; Bofors AB [is l]ocated in Karlskoga, Sweden; section 2 Present ownership)
(B) I have unearthed no video to show what (trajectory of)a top attack looks like in slow motion.
(ii) BGM-71 TOW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW
("TOW-2B has top attack capability")

TOW is always mounted -- never portable or shoulder-launched.
(iii) So does the shoulder-launched FGM-148 Javelin, in terms of top attack capability.