March 19, 2024: Russia has introduced a wire controlled UAV in order to have a UAV that is immune to electronic jamming. The new UAV has a spool containing ten kilometers of thin fiber-optic wire connected to a human-operated control station. The limitation is that the UAV can never be more than ten kilometers from the operator. For most missions this is not a problem. For longer range missions you have to operate old-school and be vulnerable to jamming. The wired UAV is an example of how Russia innovates when it encounters new Ukrainian methods to disrupt Russian operations. The wired UAV gives Russia an unjammable weapon for front line attacks. These front line targets are often protected by jammers, sometimes more than one, to disable any attacking UAVs. A wired UAV will get through to the target despite jamming. One drawback is that the wired attack UAV cannot maneuver because that risks breaking the optical fiber cable. This is the case if the UAV is fixed wing or a quadcopter.

Weapons enhanced with control wires between the launcher and the weapon are nothing new. In 1867 an American, John Lay, developed the Lay Moveable Torpedo Submarine. The Lay Moveable torpedo came in two lengths namely 4.9 and seven meters. The torpedoes were cylindrical in cross-section with conical ends and had warheads carrying 45 or 90 kg of explosive. The bodies of the torpedoes were cylindrical and tapered to a point on both ends. Lay was able to give live demonstrations of his guided torpedo design, but none were purchased by any navy because they were too expensive and the existing torpedoes, with a guidance kept them going in a straight line, remained in use.

During World War II the German navy preferred a conventional torpedo or, near the end of the war, wake following torpedoes that sensed the wake of a ship ahead of it and followed the wake until the torpedo reached the target and detonated. Most wake homing torpedoes look like standard 533mm (21 inch) torpedoes, but they are launched in the general direction of the target and then stalk it. This all began towards the end of World War II when smart torpedoes first appeared. These weapons had sensors that homed in on the sound of surface ships. The Germans pioneered this approach. The first such acoustic homing torpedoes followed the sound of the target until the magnetic fuze detected that the torpedo was underneath the ship and detonated the warhead. The acoustic homing torpedoes saw use before the war ended, and even deadlier wake homing torpedoes were perfected and put into service by Russia in the 1960s and upgraded ever since. The wake homing torpedoes detected the wake of a ship and followed the wake to where the ship currently was and detonated.

In 1972 the US Navy developed the Mk 48 wire-guided torpedo with a range of 32 kilometers. The wire guidance gave the crew of the submarine firing the torpedo more control over the torpedo and could use its sonar or periscope sightings to change the direction of the wire guided torpedo. Like the 21st century wire guided UAVs; wire guided torpedoes do not have to worry about electronic jamming.Wire guidance for a torpedo also makes it more accurate and even able to change targets.

About the same time the navy was introducing the wire guided torpedo, the army introduced the BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missile. This system is very effective and still in use. TOW has a range of 3,000 meters and has turned into another one of those designs that are so good it is difficult to replace, and the original continues to be useful and in demand. There are so many TOW launchers and missiles out there that it has become big business to refurbish and upgrade both launchers and missiles. That is a lot cheaper than buying new missiles or missile designs, and with TOW you know what you got and are comfortable with it.

TOW has been in service since 1970, and over 500,000 missiles have been manufactured. All versions are shipped and fired from a sealed launch tube. The 1970 version weighed 19 kg and had a 3.9 kg warhead. The latest TOW 2B or BGM-71F version weighs 22.7 kg and has a 6.2 kg warhead that can defeat ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor). TOWs were first used in combat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and as recently as the Ukraine War. The Ukrainians received 1,500 TOW missiles and found that they were an effective anti-tank or any-personnel weapon, especially when mounted in Infantry Fighting Vehicles like the American M2 Bradley, which uses TOW missiles as its primary anti-tank weapon.

Before Ukraine, the last time TOW destroyed tanks was in 2003, during the Iraq invasion, but it has since been used frequently against enemy strongholds in Iraq and Afghanistan. There may have been some recent tank kills in Syria, where the rebels have received some TOW systems from the United States. TOW has gotten high praise from operators throughout its half-century of use and appears to have a decade or more of life left in it, at least on the ground. In the air TOW has largely been replaced by Hellfire, which came into use in the 1980s and has undergone several improvements. There are also several more recent and smaller missiles that are displacing Hellfire. TOW was innovative for the 1970s but has not been able to evolve fast enough to eliminate the market for new designs.

One thing that distinguishes TOW from later designs is that more recent missiles are wireless. This has not proved to be as critical an innovation as many thought. There have been several wireless versions of TOW. Raytheon's radio-controlled TOW was developed for use on AH-1 helicopter gunships, and the Saudis bought over a thousand of these wireless RF TOWs for ground use by their Saudi National Guard, a tribal militia formed to protect the royal family. There were other wireless TOWs. Work on such missiles dates back more than three decades but the U.S. Army never adopted any of them. Israel developed its own wireless version MAPATS or Laser TOW in the 1980s. The Israeli TOW uses a laser designator and still has a range of 4,000 meters. MAPATS weighs 29.6 kg and evolved into a different missile in the 1990s. The Raytheon wireless TOW was lighter than MAPATS but still had a range of only 4,000 meters.

The thing TOW has going for it is reliability. It gets the job done, with either wire guidance or later wireless models. It is a simple, precise, and relatively cheap weapon that has constantly proved useful in combat.

Unjammable Wire Controlled UAVs

March 19, 2024: Russia has introduced a wire controlled UAV in order to have a UAV that is immune to electronic jamming. The new UAV has a spool containing ten kilometers of thin fiber-optic wire connected to a human-operated control station. The limitation is that the UAV can never be more than ten kilometers from the operator. For most missions this is not a problem. For longer range missions you have to operate old-school and be vulnerable to jamming. The wired UAV is an example of how Russia innovates when it encounters new Ukrainian methods to disrupt Russian operations. The wired UAV gives Russia an unjammable weapon for front line attacks. These front line targets are often protected by jammers, sometimes more than one, to disable any attacking UAVs. A wired UAV will get through to the target despite jamming. One drawback is that the wired attack UAV cannot maneuver because that risks breaking the optical fiber cable. This is the case if the UAV is fixed wing or a quadcopter.

Weapons enhanced with control wires between the launcher and the weapon are nothing new. In 1867 an American, John Lay, developed the Lay Moveable Torpedo Submarine. The Lay Moveable torpedo came in two lengths namely 4.9 and seven meters. The torpedoes were cylindrical in cross-section with conical ends and had warheads carrying 45 or 90 kg of explosive. The bodies of the torpedoes were cylindrical and tapered to a point on both ends. Lay was able to give live demonstrations of his guided torpedo design, but none were purchased by any navy because they were too expensive and the existing torpedoes, with a guidance kept them going in a straight line, remained in use.

During World War II the German navy preferred a conventional torpedo or, near the end of the war, wake following torpedoes that sensed the wake of a ship ahead of it and followed the wake until the torpedo reached the target and detonated. Most wake homing torpedoes look like standard 533mm (21 inch) torpedoes, but they are launched in the general direction of the target and then stalk it. This all began towards the end of World War II when smart torpedoes first appeared. These weapons had sensors that homed in on the sound of surface ships. The Germans pioneered this approach. The first such acoustic homing torpedoes followed the sound of the target until the magnetic fuze detected that the torpedo was underneath the ship and detonated the warhead. The acoustic homing torpedoes saw use before the war ended, and even deadlier wake homing torpedoes were perfected and put into service by Russia in the 1960s and upgraded ever since. The wake homing torpedoes detected the wake of a ship and followed the wake to where the ship currently was and detonated.

In 1972 the US Navy developed the Mk 48 wire-guided torpedo with a range of 32 kilometers. The wire guidance gave the crew of the submarine firing the torpedo more control over the torpedo and could use its sonar or periscope sightings to change the direction of the wire guided torpedo. Like the 21st century wire guided UAVs; wire guided torpedoes do not have to worry about electronic jamming.Wire guidance for a torpedo also makes it more accurate and even able to change targets.

About the same time the navy was introducing the wire guided torpedo, the army introduced the BGM-71 TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missile. This system is very effective and still in use. TOW has a range of 3,000 meters and has turned into another one of those designs that are so good it is difficult to replace, and the original continues to be useful and in demand. There are so many TOW launchers and missiles out there that it has become big business to refurbish and upgrade both launchers and missiles. That is a lot cheaper than buying new missiles or missile designs, and with TOW you know what you got and are comfortable with it.

TOW has been in service since 1970, and over 500,000 missiles have been manufactured. All versions are shipped and fired from a sealed launch tube. The 1970 version weighed 19 kg and had a 3.9 kg warhead. The latest TOW 2B or BGM-71F version weighs 22.7 kg and has a 6.2 kg warhead that can defeat ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor). TOWs were first used in combat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and as recently as the Ukraine War. The Ukrainians received 1,500 TOW missiles and found that they were an effective anti-tank or any-personnel weapon, especially when mounted in Infantry Fighting Vehicles like the American M2 Bradley, which uses TOW missiles as its primary anti-tank weapon.

Before Ukraine, the last time TOW destroyed tanks was in 2003, during the Iraq invasion, but it has since been used frequently against enemy strongholds in Iraq and Afghanistan. There may have been some recent tank kills in Syria, where the rebels have received some TOW systems from the United States. TOW has gotten high praise from operators throughout its half-century of use and appears to have a decade or more of life left in it, at least on the ground. In the air TOW has largely been replaced by Hellfire, which came into use in the 1980s and has undergone several improvements. There are also several more recent and smaller missiles that are displacing Hellfire. TOW was innovative for the 1970s but has not been able to evolve fast enough to eliminate the market for new designs.

One thing that distinguishes TOW from later designs is that more recent missiles are wireless. This has not proved to be as critical an innovation as many thought. There have been several wireless versions of TOW. Raytheon's radio-controlled TOW was developed for use on AH-1 helicopter gunships, and the Saudis bought over a thousand of these wireless RF TOWs for ground use by their Saudi National Guard, a tribal militia formed to protect the royal family. There were other wireless TOWs. Work on such missiles dates back more than three decades but the U.S. Army never adopted any of them. Israel developed its own wireless version MAPATS or Laser TOW in the 1980s. The Israeli TOW uses a laser designator and still has a range of 4,000 meters. MAPATS weighs 29.6 kg and evolved into a different missile in the 1990s. The Raytheon wireless TOW was lighter than MAPATS but still had a range of only 4,000 meters.

The thing TOW has going for it is reliability. It gets the job done, with either wire guidance or later wireless models. It is a simple, precise, and relatively cheap weapon that has constantly proved useful in combat.