Anti-tank guided missile
It was the combination of rocket propulsion and remote wire guidance that made the ATGM much more effective than these earlier weapons, and gave light infantry real capability on the battlefield against post-war tank designs.
[1] Post-Cold-War main battle tanks (MBTs) using composite and reactive armors have proven to be resistant to smaller ATGMs.
This requires continuous input from an operator using a joystick or similar control system to steer the missile to a target.
To do this, an operator must be well trained (spending many hours on a simulator) and must remain stationary and in view of a target during the flight time of the missile.
It was jointly developed by Australia and the United Kingdom between 1951 and 1954, and was in service from 1958 until gradually replaced by the Vickers Vigilant missile in the late 1960s.
In 2012, first-generation systems were described as obsolete due to low hit probability, a limited ability to penetrate modern armour, and other issues.
Examples are the Russian 9M133 Kornet, Israeli LAHAT, the NLOS version of Spike, and the American Hellfire I missiles.
Top-attack weapons such as the US Javelin, the Swedish Bill and the Indian Nag and MPATGM are designed to strike vehicles from above, where their armor is usually much weaker.
[6] Fourth generation fire-and-forget anti tank guided missiles have larger range and rely on a combination of seeker for guidance.
While these may be answered and allow for lightweight, highly maneuverable vehicles that are strongly defended against missiles and rockets that are extremely well suited for urban and guerrilla warfare, such a system is unlikely to be as effective against kinetic energy projectiles, making it a poor choice for fighting against tanks.
As kinetic energy projectiles move faster than guided missiles, this often means that the sensors attached to an active protection system can not keep up.
Other improvised methods used by the Israel Defense Forces to defeat the Saggers involved firing in front of the tank to create dust.
[20] While fire-and-forget missiles have definitive advantages in terms of guidance and operator safety, and include abilities such as top attack mode, older missiles continue in use, both in the front line armies of less developed countries, and in reserve service the world over, due to their lower cost or existing stockpiles of less advanced weapons.
