The HOT (French: Haut subsonique Optiquement Téléguidé Tiré d'un Tube, or High Subsonic, Optical, Remote-Guided, Tube-Launched)[1] is a second-generation long-range anti-tank guided missile system.

HOT initially became operational with the French and West German armies fitted to specialized armored antitank vehicles.

In addition, Euromissile received large export orders from Middle East nations at the start of mass production.

[2] This was likely due to the situation in the late 1970s where many nations did not want to rely solely on arms purchases from the Soviet Union, combined with the U.S. Congress restrictions on the export sales of the TOW antitank guided missile.

The design goal was to produce an antitank missile that could be fired from ground vehicles and helicopters; that employed the semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) guidance system instead of the less reliable manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) system used by the SS.11; had a longer range combined with a better minimum engagement range; had a higher flight speed than the SS.11 reducing flight time; and packed in a sealed container that was also a launcher.

The sustainer engine burns for 17 seconds, a flight time which path exceeds the length of the trailing wires which dictate the maximum range of the missile.

France developed a variant of the AMX-10P that substituted an armored four-tube HOT missile launcher called the Lancelot for the vehicle's regular 20 mm cannon turret.

In an unusual move, in 1986 Euromissile offered a single-round ground-launched system for HOT missiles called ATLAS (Affut de Tir Leger Au Sol - which translates roughly as light ground-firing mount) for installing on smaller unarmored vehicles, like the Jeep or Land Rover.

The object was to field an antitank weapon that long-range patrols could use to engage heavy armor beyond the range of the tank's main cannon.

But, unlike the TOW light vehicle mount, there is a shield to protect the gunner against the HOT's booster and sustainer engines, which are both burning as they exit the container.

It has a tandem shaped charge high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead able to breach explosive reactive armor, and improved anti-jamming abilities.

Various reports state that the first combat use of the HOT was with the Iraqi Army during the Iran-Iraq War, launched from Panhard VCR/TH 6x6 wheeled armored vehicles fitted with the UTM-800 turret.

[20] The 60 SA-342 M Gazelles of the French Division Daguet fired 187 HOTs during the Gulf War; 127 objectives destroyed (around twenty tanks and armored vehicles, more than forty troop transports, fifteen artillery pieces, and numerous support points) in 27 squadron attacks.

[22] In June 2011, for the Opération Harmattan, French Gazelles helicopters fired 425 HOT missiles on various pro-Qaddafi targets[23] as part of the NATO operations enforcing UN Resolution 1973.