The Javelin: The Missile That Redefined Modern Warfare
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- Опубликовано: 22 дек 2023
- Unlock the secrets of the FGM-148 Javelin, a portable and deadly anti-tank weapon! Discover its history, design, and how it single-handedly takes down modern tanks. Don't miss the incredible operational success in Ukraine, making it a symbol of resistance!
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Fire and forget is wonderful.I spent some time as a Dragon gunner and holding tracking while everyone and their kid sister saw the launch signature was sub-optimal.
I was part of every position in a TOW squad back in the day; waiting around 13 seconds while you track your target could easily have been a death sentence.
At least Zelenskyy is using the money for military equipment now and not buying any more multi million dollar yachtS (yes thats with a S why he needed America to buy him yachtS during a war time is beyond me ), multiple yachts and funding the pensionS of all the top officialS in Ukraine. (I wish that was a joke) and basically running the country off the backs of hard-working Americans.
@TommyChmelko your bots are slipping pooptin. They can't even comprehend capitalization. 😆
@@TommyChmelkoAnti Ukraine propaganda is just not going to work, son. The West's mind is made up on picking sides - and (for once) they've chosen the right one.
this is why ukranian Stugna has the launch-pad separate from the operator, (up to 50 m away)
I imagine the CEO of Texas Instruments snorted a pound of coke and said, "WE'RE F-ING DONE WITH THESE STUPID CALCULATORS! WERE MAKING F-ING MISSILES NOW! WOOOOOOOO!"
Having personally met one of those CEOs... I'm imagining what's essentially a robot doing a line and shorting out lol.
Texas instruments was making military equipment decades before handheld calculators were a consumer product ....youre the one who has to lay off the drugs
You think the javelin is crazy look at the BLU-108 and WCMD... nothing like a cluster bomb with smart lethal hockey pucks being flung out over an area and coordinating attacks on anything man made (including people). All brought to you by the same people bringing you the TI-89 Calculator.
@@Captain_Planets You should be thanking those "nerds" because they designed that guidance unit.
I use to work for Texas Instruments as an electrical engineer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I worked on the TOW missile and Paveway laser guided bomb guidance unit.
Since the range of the latest Javelin is now farther than the range of a Tanks Gun...it's no longer "fire and forget" it's now "Fire and wave at them".
More like, "Fire and give them the middle finger"
You are dreaming, it's range is 4km max, a T90 can frag you at 10 km.
@@ledzepandhabsat 10 km a t90 wont even see you let alove land a shot in your postcode.
@@trazyntheinfinite9895 Try 3,000 meters.
Are you on drugs @@ledzepandhabs ?
The optics on the javelin are so good weve seen ukranians utilizing the optics even without missiles. Its just an all around good piece of equipment.
The CLU is used for its thermal camera without a missile. But it does take a few mins to cool enough before use
Ukraine are still losing though
Yes but it’s bulky, overheats easily and kills the battery very quickly. It’s better than nothing but it’s a bit dated compared to modern day thermals.
@@goodecheeseburgers6320 3 more days and russia will take kyiv right? lmao
@@moonashaHow's that Summer Counteroffensive coming along?
The best part of the javelin is the fact that you can detatch the sights and just use them separately for surveillance and recon
Wouldn't it drain the battery, and rendered it useless or cause you risk haste/miss the shot at critical moment? If the battery dies?.
@@kentershackle1329 i am quite sure the army and developers thought about this, I dunno, like a simple battery charge gauge?
@@traviskingful And carry spare batteries!
@@kentershackle1329 I remember seeing an article earlier in the war about how Ukrainian forces were using the CLU for recon and forward observation
@@kentershackle1329 They Jerry rig car batteries and the like
For over a decade I've been hauling crushed stone with an on road tri-axle dump truck for Martin Marietta. Today, I learned about their involvement with javelin missiles. You learn something new everyday.
My father was an engineer, he drilled that saying into me & my brother's heads as youngsters. He always said: "if you didn't learn something new today you've wasted the day." He didn't do it every day but a few times a week at dinner he'd ask what we learned & I always felt a little ashamed if I couldn't come up with something I'd learned
edit: spelling
Live near there been in also
Martin Marietta is the Martin in Lockheed Martin
"The missile chooses which section of the target is more optimal to strike"
Operative word: *chooses.*
Out there, in the world, there are one-use, self-propelled, explosive devices that can accurately assess their target in a fraction of a second, and think to itself "mmm yes, I fancy hitting them *riiiight there* ".
I'm just waiting when they practices on Putin Presidential limousine.👍
It goes from "To whom it may concern" to "Hello, have we met yet?"
Thats his body doubles....
He rides in an armored underground train straight to his bunker next to his submarines full of gold.
uh no its a comparative analysis of the individual picture frames and pre selected answers given based on it by the hundreds of pattern recognition algorithms involved. theres nothing conscious or voluntary about it. utterly incorrect use of the word choice.
@joshschneider9766 Thanks for being the "uhm, ackchtually" guy that literally nobody asked for, but unbeknownst to us, we apparently needed...
Man it's pretty crazy to think, all the "high-tech" "super advanced" weapons we know about in public... Are 25-30 years old.
yep.
Javelins are the super "wonder weapons " that NATO gave Ukraine to defeat Russia and here we are. no longer is being mentioned anywhere.. after 2 years of wars.. . people rather not use them to gain mobility and instead call artillery for anything related to destroying the enemy.. Artillery and drones are far better than any javeling. and more cheap. the cost of its use.
I thinks it because they often start as prototypes and have not been mass produced. The companies first need to make adjustments to the militaries liking and then all the paperwork etc needs to be approved in order to mass produce. Also nowadays these types of weapons are highly sofisticated which I think makes them slower to produce. The US is also not in a major War right now so production is slower than it would be in wartime. Sorry for such a long response xd
Imagine what the Ukrainians would do with the RuSSians if they had the modern stuff!
Putler would cry every day like a little baby inside his bunker 😂🤣🤣😂
Cold War was a wondrous time for defence R&D.
A friend of mine was deployed to Afghanistan, he told a lot of stories about the place. Including how the Taliban use to have generators right outside the cave entrance and they would lock on to those and fire the missile to collapse the entrance.
They just got out of other entrance / exit ? say good bye to tax payer money. And was US leaving Afganistan like a female dog ?
@@bluedragontoybash2463 ...did you have a stroke typing that?
@@bluedragontoybash2463 probably, he didn't elaborate on it. Probably needed to prevent them from leaving that entrance.
The US was sitting pretty well in Afghanistan (albeit not as good as in Syria), but the US admin started talks with the Taliban about pulling out without involving the Afghan army or government. And releasing 5000 seasoned, dangerous Taliban fighters for nothing in return.
With hindsight, are we surprised the Afghan army melted as fast as it did?
@@nicolaasstempels8207
Well mate, mate not sitting in the Open at night , or in a convoy with 24/7 surveillance help overhead . I wouldn't say.. pretty well having control of the area.
The fact, the need to negotiate NO ATTACK on base n convoy with the Taliban when outpost are closing/shutting down , shows the reality.
It's amazing how some weapons can gain a reputation in peacetime with absolutely no proof of their viability but during wartime even the most mundane weapons can attain a reputation that makes them legendary.
No where is this more obvious than HIMARS and M270 MLRS. Rocket artillery was always kind of the bastard child of long range fires and now there is a massive push to expand the numbers in service. Funny how the US Army wanted more conventional tube artillery for so many years and neglected rocket artillery and now we are seeing how hard it thumps in a peer vs peer conflict.
It's funny because we have had these for ages, we just didn't have many enemies who had tanks or armored vehicles. Who knew?!
American prefers the air force takes out the tanks before the infantry gets close enough to fire a Javelin
@@badluck5647 Well, when you got it you got it lol. As a former combat infantryman, I can assure you we like to get close ;-)
They blew Afghan mud compounds to dust n Iraqi soft skin veichles didn't know what hit em...😂
@@badluck5647 it's a redundancy, if the Air Force somehow misses a tank and it gets close to infantry, then the javelin works.
@@speedy01247 I'm not implying that they are useless. I was just clarifying why the weapon system has greater importance for the Ukrainians over the Americans.
It's amazing that every video on the Javelin keeps showing footage of the NLAW mixed in xD
I'm not even 15 seconds in and there it is.
NLAW at - 00:08 and 04:26 and 04:38 and 04:41 and 04:43 and 05:47 and possibly at 07:04 and again at 14:15
I qualified expert on the Dragon system in the military, 1st/16th infantry at Ft. Polk, La. When firing, you could feel the weight of the rocket shift forward as it travelled down the barrel of the launcher. Hella backblast. But you had to keep the crosshairs on the target until impact. The BGM-71 Tow was also being used during that time. Both were badass but my favorite was the M-72 LAW. A lot easier to carry.
That's wild - 2nd time I've heard someone speak well of the LAW. I worked with a programmer who'd been with the Army in Iraq and fired his LAW at a BMP. He said "it blew up" - I was never sure if he meant the missile or the BMP, but he said "and the crew bailed out", so one presumes the warhead went off, and the crew bailed out after their track got hit. IIRC he got a medal for it? But he kept the tube! :)
Thank you for serving, I know Freedoms not free!
Thank you for the honor of serving for you and yours!@@kingdiesel68
The LAW is a light armor weapon. I'm pretty sure if that hit was a good one, it penetrated the BMP. Probably messed up their day (the riders and driver). For a small rocket, it packs a punch.@@thedungeondelver
as an infantryman i loved the newer versions of the LAW especially the Anti-Personnel warhead we were issued as we didn't have any need for the anti-tank warheads in Afghanistan
The video does not explain fully the purpose of the precursor charge, it's serendipity that it explodes reactive armour but its major purpose is to remove all the clutter in front of the shaped charge main warhead to allow the plasma jet to be properly formed and focused, this requires absolutely no obstructions, or the perturbations from reactive armour.
Shaped charges are normally designed for and most effective at 2.5 calibres away from the target.
A family friend I knew in the 90s was working as a Martin Marietta cost accountant. He got to participate in the engineering and development of the Patriot, Hellfire, and Javelin program. Was pretty cool to see declassified development footage of weapons like this as a teen.
My infantry battalion I was in 1996 was one of the units that got to test the javelin system. Our TOW guys absolutely loved it.
The total unit is very expensive, but the launcher control unit, the most expensive part, is reusable. The tube is cheap and disposable. The control until has other uses, too. It is ideal for simply searching and ranging targets that other weapons can kill.
I remember first seeing this beauty on Discovery Channel show Future Weapons, with former Navy Seal Richard "Mack" Machowicz as host. (RIP Mack) Even though he saw tons of 'future weapons' on the show as well as his career in general, he said back then that he knew this system was a game changer. Great guy. Discovery Channel used to be great too.
Just realized he died 6 years ago. I loved that show.
@@AllanFolm yep. Remember 'Deadliest Warrior'? Silly, but entertaining.
I remember that show, that was when Discovery & History were actually great & had many different must see type shows. Now they're nothing like they used to be, especially the History Channel.. if it's not Ancient Aliens👽 it's that fake/reality tv pawn shop show 🤢
Always thought it should have been called the Halberd considering how that weapon pretty much revolutionized how the heavy horse charge was used in warfare, well that and the crossbow. Then again you can't throw a halberd and you can reload a crossbow, so there's that idea!
In a training simulation exercise I once lured a MRR into a valley and destroyed them with a Light Infantry Battalion armed with Javelins then artillery once the vehicles had been destroyed or jammed up. Awesome weapon.
@@baneofbanesare javelins now much less useful as it is more and more trench warfare in not moving positions mostly? Longer range sure helps but keeping tanks 2-4km range from what they are shooting makes them hard target to lock.
Merry Christmas to you Simon and team + anyone else reading this
Ukrainians wheb they got these without instructions: "We'll just look up tutorials on RUclips."
Russian paratroopers when the capture a bunch of them: "Christmas has come early for us."
I read “Red Storm Rising” by Tom Clancy years ago, evidently Clancy already knew how all this would play out 😂
Dude I so loved reading some of his novels. I mean it's no surprise that he was in the US Army in the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps. But I wouldn't be shocked if he knew how to fight soviets during his time.
The Javelin is indeed impressive but I'm constantly astounded by the destructive power of drones, particularly as used in the Ukraine. Some of the most basic ones only cost a few hundred dollars but are more than capable of taking out tanks or heavy self-propelled guns, there are plenty of videos on RUclips showing this. I would argue that perhaps this has redefined warfare more than the Javelin.
A drone is slow and soft skinned. It won’t take long for armies to develop counters for it.
I used to shoot the predecessor to the Javelin and even the Dragon was bad ass! It was goofy watching the round bounce as it headed down range but to say it was inaccurate is an oxymoron because it was dependent on the gunner to be able to keep it on target. There was nothing wrong with the round itself being inaccurate and like a NASCAR, its only as good as the one steering it!
I learned on the POS called the Dragon and actually became an instructor. It is accurate so long as you keep the laser on the target but there were just a few issues.
Issue 1: if the hair thin wire gets snagged on a twig and the missile goes haywire. If it crosses a stream it might go haywire. If the tank has a laser dazzler, you guessed it, the missile goes haywire.
2: after you shoot it theres a nice smoke plume leading right back to you and the missile was SLOW. Keeping the laser on a moving target at a long distance is hard, doing it while every armored vehicle in the area shoots at you is insanely hard/suicidal.
3 keeping that lasrr on a moving target when theres smoke, trees, and friendlies moving in front of you.
It has two advantages, first, you can launch it faster at point blank range. Second, its cheaper. Keep in mind I never got to fire or play with the javelin, the most I ever did was look through the CLU and prepare it tp fire in EIB.
0:55 Talk about a blast from the past. I know Texas Inteuments for their TI graphing calculators I used in school.
Didn't know they also did military contracts, the more you know 🤯
Great video as always. I hope he does one on the stinger missile system soon. That one has been at least as important in history as the Javelin.
4:26 and 4:40 Not a Javelin launcher, but NLAW
7:43 Not a Javelin missile, but Hellfire missile
Yikes
Looks like I'm not the only missile guy in the comments. Former DoD missile tech.
Was looking for this comment, 🎉 keep up the good work
I find alot of this kind in Simons videos. I guess it's just a lazy editor or producer who just let it slip or don't know better. But I find it annoying.
There are two NLAWs at the start of the video too.
I absolutely love your videos. The information and backstories you provide are truly fascinating and give us a glimpse into the sausage-making of industrial production. But honestly, as much I dig the content, I think it's your John Cleese "And now for something completely different" delivery that keeps bringing me back. I look forward to your work in the new year. So long, and thanks for all the fish!
fairly certain the cage the russians are using on their tanks is meant to counter drones dropping explosives directly inside the tank from above, rather than to stop javelins or other anti-tank missiles
They put on the cope cages before drone warfare proved itself. If they were truly worried about drones they would've had their defenses up and we woupd've never seen those scenes of drones killing antiaircraft systems.
When the Soviets started putting reactive armor on their tanks, the US countered with the TOW-2. This fired a missile with a small lead projectile. The lead projectile would hit and activate the reactive armor and then the main projectile was now unabated to penetrate the armor. The covers are for drones mostly but also top/down missile systems. It could trigger the lead projectile leaving its main left to deal with the reactive plates. In theory.
There is an interesting discussion of the guidance system on youtube. One is "Why the Javelin Missile guidance computer uses FPGAs" which is a follow up to "LDM #354: Javelin Missile guidance computer - Part 1: teardown"
Remember getting trained for the TOW and hearing about the Javelin. Then when really going to war in Iraq and Afgan, we ended up using the TOW because of the punch to buildings to clear them, and the Javelin getting set aside. Javelin a first world weapon, and the TOW for sh...tholes.
TOW's pinching holes in tanks too in Ukraine.
Turns out it was all overkill and a racing drone strapped with a RPG warhead was all you needed
The next upgrade for drones is to have them in an easy to set up package like the Nikita missile from MGS.
@@MostlyPennyCat do you think a Gepard can take out drones?
Carl-Gustav can handle anything but the most modern MBTs. Haven’t heard of anyone trying though.
'Dated' is not synonymous with 'ineffective'.
Lot of NLAW footage in there instead of Javelins there bud.
To be fair the NLAW is just a cheaper lighter shorter ranged javelin.
The javelin horribly under performed in the analysis of actual footage of it I found. Something like only about half of javelin hits even get the kill.
@@Mortablunt when a T72 costs 2 million and the missile costs 100k they can afford to miss 18 times and still be cost effective so "underperformed" is a reach.
@@Mortablunt😂 yeah that's why the Russians are terrified of them and the Ukrainians are writing songs about them.
The hit rates are way over 90%. These aren't new kid.
Tell your dead they weren't 🎯
@@ianjardine7324 well... they serve roughly same purpose on the field, that being destruction of mainly armored targets, but their operational role and working mechanisms couldn't be much further from each other...
NLAW is something that you'd give out to many members of any squad that doesn't fill a specific antitank role. Javelin on the other is quite more focused on the antitank role and requires at the very least 2 man team to be effective.
Then there's the technology in each of them, javelin uses active IR tracking or what ever, NLAW is completely passive, there's no IR guidance, the missile does not track the target. The warhead is instead programmed as you track the target for a few seconds, and based on what you tracked, the missile steers it self to the predicted intersection point, where some sort of sensor, likely magnetometer or something detects that there's something underneath and detonates, if the target stops after you've launched, it will miss. It's a passive system after all, unlike the javelin that will attempt to track the heat signature it has been locked to, it likely keeps track of the recent shape of the target while flying and compare that to the current image to verify it's indeed tracking the same target instead of a countermeasure.
Oh, then there's the range, NLAW has effective range between 20 meters and 800m, where as javelin operates between 300 to 4500, so there's that also. I wouldn't call them the same.
Amazing technology! We used the 44 lb. M67 recoiless rifle in tbe 80s. This is light years better..
Worst nightmare isn’t Javelin by long shot, what’s nightmare for either side in Ukraine is artillery, most of the destroyed weapons is do to artillery and now drones, Javlin was in the beginning of the conflict you don’t hear about javelins anymore
Yes. You do.
They are still being used actively, but a lot of tanks these days get killed by FPV drones well outside the javelins range first.
@@nobodyherepal3292 point made, I said you don’t hear about them I didn’t say there not being used, it the beginning of this conflict it was close combat so they were used a lot and did a lot of damage, situation on the front has changed and Artillery is king
back in 03 we used our Jav CLU in our guard towers for the thermal viewer at night.
We used them for the same thing, I was in Iraq 06-08. Never even seen the missiles for the fuckin thing lol.
Bullshit; the thing has a sharply limited battery, and no cooling. You can only run it for a couple of minutes at a time, so says the manual, which you can easily fine with Google.
@@infantry9903 gets real fuckin dark in the desert with no light pollution lol. NVGs strugglin sometimes.
Always amuses me when grunts look at what an engineer built something for and go "Fuck that, look what I can do with it instead" lol
Somewhere an engineer is simultaneously proud and dying inside.
@@mawnkey well, I was somewhat of an engineer myself. Only we used C-4 and 113's, and would rather blow a bridge up than build one.
I bet you've already covered it, but what's that high-speed British missile that fires 3 separate tracking darts?
I'd love to see more about that one.
Starstreak
That is the Starstreak used against air targets. Very deadly weapon if you're flying something like a helicopter.
Think there is a new Javelin in development now. Wish they got information on that.
I didn't hear him talk about the minimum range. The target cannot be too close. Or how infantry use the command module as binoculars.
5 mega pixels? The fuck. This 2010?! Android has 500! Military should be getting 1,000 for that effin price.
Shitstreak
@@dianapennepacker6854Megapixels only tells about maximum theoretical quality, not real quality of picture
@@ifv2089someone thinks war thunder is a simulator
Back in 2008 we ran a night operation together with a British unit where one of our platoon commanders was given tactical command of one of the British Javelin squads alongside his own platoon which were acting as support/suppression. he wasn't trained on the Javelin but was supposed to say go or no go on any shots they took.
During a firefight in very foggy weather the javelin section took aim at a target and asked for permission to fire, the commander took a look through the optic and seeing no "cat eyes" or similar night fighting markers on the targets (which everyone wore, that would be visible in his NVGs) he told them to shoot.
Turns out it was one of the British assaulting sections, a blue on blue accident, and a couple (I don't recall the exact number) of their own guys were killed or wounded. If I recall correctly the commander and anyone else involved was interviewed by MPs and he was then flown home to account for his decision and was found not at fault, it was deemed a terrible accident, he then came back to continue leading his men for the rest of the deployment.
Still, this highlighted to me a problem with identifying friend from foe in this system being used against infantry, since there's really no good way of making an IFF marker for a thermal system besides maybe short circuiting a 9 volt battery in your back pocket and hoping it doesn't burn your ass off or explode your ass off, the conventional reflex-markers and IR strobes only show up in light amplifying equipment, but thermal systems don't amplify light.
The Army had the same problem with blue-on-blue attacks during Desert Storm, this is why all US Armored vehicles have the "corrugated" looking recognition panel. This panel shows a different color on thermal/IR/FLIR. Something similar needs to be developed for infantry.
So for some direct knowledge, I was part of an anti tank squad in 2001. Our primary weapon was the Gustav rocket launcher with its various rounds, including the heat round for penetration. The 72mm LAW rocket was similar with its smaller heat round but was being discontinued (even though most of us think that was a mistake. I was trained on the javelin back then and at that time we considered it better for ground to air use, especially since the targeting system was easily and regularly confused by rolling hills or similar in the foreground, and if any such thing was in the sight picture along with the target, the system seemed to calculate a distance in between, completely missing the highlighted target. I imagine they quickly reworked this failure since it was so embarrassing considering much older, less technologically advanced weapons wouldn't have that issue. Still super impressive how it could track aircraft in flight, which again is what we saw as a use case.
some 72mm law and gustav still have in place if we disregard price? One wouldnt choose weapon based on price when life is on the line, or nobody would order those 500k javelin units. I take guidance unit per each rocket in javelin is way more complex than these other weapons making most of price difference... CLU is reusable afterall. Seeing videos, javelin makes bigger blast but otherwise seems to work similarly than NLAW(top attack mode, fire and forget?).
My favorite thing about the Javelin is that you can use the CLU without the weapon attached. We often did that in Iraq.
Loads of footage in there of NLAWs being fired in training and even a brief piece of film of a Hellfire hitting a range target tank.
Just a heads up, several of the shots used in the video are of the British NLAW. Looks somewhat similar to the Javelin, but the lack of the CLU for the Javelin is a dead give away.
No way, a Brit on one of these threads doing comparisons. What….are…..the chances?
The small initial launching charge is a safety feature. This enables the missile to leave the launcher. Then at a safe distance the main motor engages and propelles the warhead to the target. This protects the operator from being fried by the missiles main motor. The WW2 German panzerschreck didn"t have this feature and had a blast screen instead. The panzerfaust however did utilize the kicker charge. Later Soviet ICBM's used the same principle for " cold launches". This enabled a much larger and improved missile to be launched out of the same old silo.
Thanks, bro! Another great video!
Early in the Ukraine war there were many videos of the javelin and the NLAW missiles destroying vehicles. The NLAW videos pretty much stopped. I wonder why. Did the available supply get used up?
No, the Russian armor rarely gets past the javelins, TOWs, Stugnits, and FPV drones to get into NLAW range.
(NLAWS tend to be shorter ranged)
Nlaw is for urban combat it has a short range. Javelin is for open fields
Russia just run out of vehicles to use early 2022. Jokes aside people just stopped believing and hyping those videos. So video production stopped. Javelins did some job, but it influence on field situation was negletable, it cant change absolutly anything in large scheme of things.
T14 Armata wasn't destroyed by Javelin because it's a stealth tank. Nobody ever seen one in combat :D
abrahams in ukraine too!
@@thecomradetrotskyt14 dogwater cope
They don't need to waste T14's, they have thousands of 72, 80 and 90's. The 14 is reserved for fighting NATO proper.
@@bort6414 too scared of loosing the abrums to the cheap commie drone that was supposed to have runned out last year?
@@thecomradetrotskyAbrams are active in Ukraine and have destroyed many Russian positions
The Short company also made the Seacat naval SAM and its land based equivalent the Tigercat. The Seacat was based on the 1950s Australian Malkara wire guided anti tank guided missile which used a MACLOS guidance system. Three distinct versions of the Seacat were used. The first version used sighting binoculars and MACLOS. So the aimer had to keep the target centred in cross hairs and also steer the missile using a joystick. So this was similar to Blowpipe. Later versions used SACLOS guidance and radar control. The final version as fitted to the Type 21 Frigates used a CCTV monitor and a joystick. The operator only had to keep the target centred on crosshairs on the TV screen and the missile would be guided to the target. However none of the versions were effective and Seacat only achieved either one zero kills during the Falklands War.
luv that page 27
Bless Saint Javelin
Andy Stumph from the cleared hot podcast has a interesting few stories about using the javelin in Afghanistan when the al-Qaeda fighters would try to “lob” in machine gun rounds from outside the effective range of his unit’s snipers. Apparently the javelin can lock onto a man’s heat signature from almost 3 kilometres away.
I was thinking about Andy watching this. Awesome dude with awesome stories!
When our unit first fielded them in the late 90's / early 00's, we took them to the range and stress tested what the CLU can do. Standard live fire range bunker 1,000 meters out, with a dummy made from sandbags stuffed with pine straw sitting on a metal folding chair in the middle. As a joke, someone stuck a lit cigarette in its mouth. CLU not only locked onto the cherry from a click out, but the Jav knew to adjust trajectory to go through the 2X2 window aperture in the side wall of the bunker in direct attack mode.
I dont know much about munitions but I will say this its basically a portable hellfire missile so badass
Cool Toy!
cant help but smile at remembering Battlefield's "Everyday I'm Javelin" songs & videos 😄
Sure it's a marvel of engineering, but the wat in Ukraone has shown that an RPG round taped to a $400 FPV drone works almost as well.
FPV certainly can disable a target. But it may take multiple FPV's to actually kill a tank; and even the, sometimes it isn't guaranteed unrecoverable. Sometimes the drone signal can be traced back to the operator, putting them in danger. RPG's require the operator to get uncomfortably close to their intended target. While they can kill, Javelin gives its operators the ability to deliver death by dial up from fuck knows where and scoot before the missile even impacts. Great crew survivability, and the tank sure as hell isn't likely to survive the hit.
Beautiful 👌
Great video 👍
The raw energy of the explosive contained in reactive armor is what defeats the hypersonic molten metal lance of shaped charges in missiles, not shrapnel from a preliminary explosion
The javelins preliminary charge breaks a proverbial "surface tension" of the target, allowing the main charge free access to the newly accessible plate armor beneath
Not a great idiom but I hope it helps
Loosely compared, in springboard diving and high diving we rapidly scoop a little hole in still water with our hands to break surface tension and minimize splash as our body follows into the pool.
Also why dive tanks have little fountain next to the diving board at competition and why you should toss a stone into a still lake before you cliff dive into it from great height
Quality piece of kit from the Americans- most excellent. Alongside the NLAW, they have devastated Orc AFV's and racked up a huge number of kills. Watching Orc MBT turrets behaving like frisbees never loses it's appeal. I read somewhere that the US designed the Javelin with the intention of using it in the Fulda Gap in the event of the Sov hoard pouring into West Germany. The war in Ukraine has taught us two things, the Javelin is extremely potent, and the Russian's most certainly aren't!
Nearly the entire American arsenal was based around a SHTF scenario taking place in Eastern/Central Europe (gee, wonder what gave them that concern). All the training, technology, theory, planning, equipment builds were all based around a gigantic Soviet attack from the East. Knowing that Europe was spoiled and most couldn’t be bothered to be pulled away from their two hour lunch breaks and cafes (sorry, couldn’t resist) we figured it would be up to us and the Brits. Anyway, point is, this is the first time we’re really seeing it in action. The mega war of Eastern Europe never materialized (hopefully not to) and all this stuff is getting its proper showcasing. If only we could send A-10s.
Why show the NLAW when introducing the Javelin between 0:06-0:10? Makes it confusing for people who dont know the difference!
As a qualified javelin gunner [04-12] the direct attack mode vs helicopters is standard training. in country [afghanistan] we mostly just carried the CLU as a observation tool with its thermal optics as we never expected to ever fire a live round against armor, helicopters or even a bunker/cave with the sheer amount of fixed and rotary wing aircraft we had on call at any time.
But how sweet would it have been to be the guy that took down a jingly chopper 😂😂😂
Proud to say that I worked on the optical system on Javelin.
hey what a coincidence my grandfather did too
One javelin costs 178,000 dollars and the price of a missile is 40,000, this is a total of 218,000 for one destroyed tank, one FPV drone costs 700 dollars, you need three drones to destroy a tank, so for this amount you can destroy 100 tanks, and the range of the javelin is 2.5 km FPV drone 15 km, yes, the javelin is a good weapon, but it is better to invest this money in the production of 300 drones
Drones have an EM signature and can be tracked and the guidance radio signal is commonly interfered with using jammers. Apparently drone operators have one of the most dangerous jobs in Ukraine. You may have 300 times the drones but you don't have 300 time the number of drone operators available.
@@user-vp4ml6wp5o lol a javelin operator needs to see the target with his own eyes in order to aim at it, for this you need to at least get out of the trench, it is much more dangerous than operating a drone 5-10 km from the zero line, yas the EW interferes a lot, but it will not be able to shoot down all the drones, proof of that thousands of videos with destroyed equipment by FPV, drone pilots are a little further from the zero line, so it is infantry that is considered the most difficult and dangerous "job" I have a good friend who is currently at the front, believe me, FPV pilot is considered a relatively safe job than infantry
@@user-vp4ml6wp5o ask any soldier now what he would choose 300 drones or 1 javelin, the answer is obvious
In defense of Soviet tank designs, their frontal protection is (was?) serious enough for Lockheed Martin to develop an ATGM that doesn't strike at frontal armor.
TOW has had zero problems punching through Soviet armor straight on, but it's also a very heavy system.
Top attack munitions can trade power for range and reduced weight, which are important for infantry having to carry it around and engage tanks over open ground.
Cool story Ork!
@@johnny1893
Orks don't exist, and you desperately need to grow up.
I’ve seen multiple videos of Russian tanks, surviving TOW missiles, Stugna missiles, and Javelins. The reality is tanks are tough to kill.
Did you have one it’s not a mobile system they weigh 50 pounds each and the command unit is another 15 pounds so that’s 65 pounds and a 5 foot long 2 foot wide thing on top of whatever else the soldier is carrying.
The fire for, and forget it seriously overrated as this thing requires you maintain line of sight with your target for a full 45 seconds, which is a very long time to expect the enemy to retain compliance with you without shooting you.
I’ll put it this way it took me about six months to actually find confirmed javelin used videos and I’ve only seen 16 since the war began and it only has actually score to kill in 4 of them.
@@ultimategrr4480
Of course, I never claimed that Soviet armor was impervious to all NATO weaponry. And of course big enough projectile will eat any tank, the question is practicality.
Very interesting
Of all the weapons i have been trained on, the Javelin is my favorite just because of my instructors. We got out of class early every day in the training course because of how motivated the lead guy kept us. We learned quickly. Chief came in with his coffee every morning, gave a big smile, and in a thick Hispanic accent; "Who's ready to learn more about the YAVALIN?!?". It became a joke that if you said Javelin, you had second-hand training. If you said Yavalin, you were legit Building 4 certified. (Building 4 is Fort Benning's Infantry Hall.)
And I must say, while the CLU (command launch unit) is always mentioned in Javelin videos, and can be used in unorthodox ways, another component is rarely mentioned. The BCU. Battery Cooling Unit. A one time use component that brings it all together.
Very interesting content and along with NLaw and other atgm systems have certainly made their presence felt on the battlefield. As a former infantry man 🇬🇧 of the 70s things have taken a massive leap forward from the Carl Gustav 84 and 66 Law of my day. Ukraine 🇺🇦 heroes need our support 🇺🇦✊
Ah yes, St. Javelin, the patron saint of anti armor weaponry. Also known as the Mother NLAW
>preps jav
>sights target
>fires
>God Bless America plays on piezo buzzer
>Boom
Its well worth watching the trail fire videos. When the solder fires is amazed that he obliterated the tank
Saint Javelin!
FPV drones have taken more equipment than javelins and NLAWs combined
They are cheaper too. And easier to manufacture
Ur delivery is inspirational😂
This is so much fun to use on shipment.
"Fire and forget" is what most companies do to their employees before outsourcing to India and China 😢
Not anymore. Companies are leaving china.
good luck with quality control... north korean ammo seems to self combust in russian hands now. Also china is glad to stop supplying weaponry when they see fit.
Can also take down unshielded alien tripods
The AMC Javelin was pretty awesome too.
This weapon is a blessing 😎
Fun fact my dad works at Texas Instruments and his job is to design the blue prints for the microchips for the engineers to make but unfortunately he is never told what they're for so it is very much possible that my dad designed the microchip for the Javelin without knowing it.
i mean most chips have more than one use, but ur dad still has a cool job which requires a bunch of brain-power to do
@@M4xXxIkInG yeah. He's been working for TI for about 40 to 50 years now. He's going to retire by the end of the year.
If you want to see something insane (well it seems pretty nuts to me) there's a French bloke on RUclips that's got himself a guidance section from a genuine javelin missiles and goes through a teardown of it.
Obviously it's just the guidance section, no warhead or the rocket motor section but when I came across it I just thought it was so unusual to see something like this just out there in RUclips. He said he bought it through a legitimate surplus dealer, I'm a bit suprised that's possible but there you go.
It's got 400k views so I guess if it wasn't supposed to be up it'd be taken down by now.
What channel
Inane ? 🤭 Russian youtube channel about armament has a full video of an actual working and a loaded Javelin being tested on some scrapped tank they used as a dummy target, with actually firing the thing. Now thats insane, youtube bloggers with military background and expertise are testing anti rocket systems on scrap tanks
@@justinwalsh8512 it's easier to find it by just searching javelin teardown but the channels name is Le Labo De Michel
@@Goorood I think we're looking at it in two different ways. There are lots of videos showing ATGM systems blowing something up but actually seeing inside of it and how it is constructed is something that's usually restricted or censored - that's why it's so wild IMO.
You MUST do a video on the AGM-114 R9X Hellfire missile - the Ginsu
Best AT weapon ever made
The Javelin is without a doubt the best anti tank weapon in the world. That said I think the razor drone series will make it obsolete, primarily for its price point and its range/ loiter ability
Not at all. That double stage explosion makes it that much better
The Bestest in da Galaxy. 🤣 Javelin so stronk that Ukraine having 10.000 of them got her ass royally kicked 🤔🤭
I wonder if CIWS type autogun become more common in future tanks to counter those drones. Dont know threshold when projectile speed is too fast for those but drones are slow. Of course all of these cost. Drones seem dirt cheap vs 100k$ javelin. But incase helicopter with modern anti missile systems are there, javelin type weapon is needed.
@@Gooroodand yet russia still hasn’t won their war with ukraine even after 2 years. And to think that people think russia could even threaten nato
@@airsoftpopcorn NATO would kick ass for about a month. Then things would change. Russia can produce their shit on pace with war. NATO would be fighting with Stick when attrition takes out their first and only round of really cool and expensive shit.
Sure would like to know the numbers of missiles the European countries Norway, Albania, Latvia ordered and what a price deal they got per missile.
14:07 Yessir, Brain Boy. I mentioned once, long ago, that I was an instructor for the Javelin...among other stuff...lol.
I'm glad you mentioned the helicopter kill, because most people aren't even aware of this capability of the Javelin.
It's badass. ...lol
Fun fact: The CLU can lock onto the cherry of a lit cigarette of dummy (made out of sandbags stuffed with Pine needles) sitting in a chair in a bunker a click out. Found that out on a range back in 2001.
Lol I used them back then and it absolutely would have missed in practice, especially if there are any rolling hills in between the shooter and the target
NLAW, Javelin and Russian Kornet top out their
@@dolphinswithigloos1535What matter are production volumes, speed and cost.
Pretty much most of the Javelins in the world (sic!) were used up in the first 2-3 months of the war in Ukraine, and the production rate of Javelins is spectacularly low with no signs for the improvement.
On the other hand, Kornets and Stugnas are still in active use, along with hordes of FPV drones.
If the Javelin system has been operational for twenty years, imagine the systems which have been in development and remain 'under-wraps'.
Technology is kind of at the point that secret advanced weapons don't really exist.
Don't get me wrong I'm sure there are some but it probably mostly involves unique weaponry like rail guns or drones.
Basically the weapons we have now are about as good as they can get because of literal physic or human ability limitations - there's only so much rocket propellant or explosive you can pack into a defined space.
@@retsaMinnavoiGpeople during the Roman empire also believed tech could not advance any further than it had because they thought they had reached the peak. You cannot predict what new technological advances will unlock in terms of capabilities
@@retsaMinnavoiG with the incredible amount of drone usage going on in Ukraine from both sides, I can only imagine what they're dreaming up in the military industrial complex. I think there's going to be some incredibly small, drone like weapons developed that can be operated by one person where they "fire & forget" one after another. I'd bet this war has sparked some serious inventing
30 years. There's about 10 different variants of the Javalin now
well RPG-7 which is a russian rocket grenade from the 70s,. defeated NATO tanks infrantry armor in the battlefield. and can knockdown a tank from the sides from the latest versions.
Being a Dragoneer in the 90's was very cool!! 93-95 !!
3:13 dear lord. What an effective weapon indeed.
People think that Javelin is the revolutionary weapon because the media has hyped it up, but people forget that Russian and Uke gopniks are flying $50 drones into the roof of each others tanks by the truckload. Like, I get it, Javelin and NLAW is le shiny and Western so all the kids think it's hot shit, but the fact is that Ukraine has been the first large scale conflict where everything that Javelin can has been replicated en-masse on both sides for a mere fraction of the cost and deployed in their thousands to the frontline. Imagine a weapon as numerous as the RPG-7 with all the capabilities of Javelin and cheaper than both - that's exactly what has happened in Ukraine. I genuinely believe that it's going to change the way that Tanks are used forever.
Drones have an EM signature and can be tracked and the guidance radio signal is commonly interfered with using jammers. Apparently drone operators have one of the most dangerous jobs in Ukraine.
Drones have their place but so does the Javelin.
@@user-vp4ml6wp5o A kink that I soon expect to be ironed out. Signals can be encrypted, hidden etc. Even the electronic signals acquired by SIGINT groups on both sides are weak and vague and they have to fire everything they have at the suspected location to even get one guy flying his bargain bin drone, and this usually after he has buzzed it straight into an enemy dugout or into the top of a tank or whatever.
I don't even want to think about what's going to happen with these AI loitering munitions.
You make it sound like Russians do not have anything like Javelin. As a matter of fact they do have a Kornet system which has a range more than double of the Javelin.
But is not as mobile compared to the Javelin & doesn’t have a top attack mode
Interesting but I swear that looked like a Hellfire missile clobbering the static tank in a test fire. Also, the telltale signs of a PARM off-route mine in your other clip. The giveaway is the ground level cloudy string of smoke.
I think you are correct. Also, great video quality for an older "battle video" so, it's probably just a training video.
Barbara and javelin. The two unbeatable saints.
I'm an expert with the javelin taking out many tanks in my day. Too many to count. Oh that would be battlefield 3 lol I'm an ace with that 😊
I was ace in the havoc. Javelin never worried me unless I stole a tank
@@jamiebrooks3864 oh I've taken out a few helicopters with the javelin on the game. But they have to be locked in by a sniper. With their laser. But I definitely would rather be in the air than on the ground lol
@DuranDuran31 that's when you bail out when the opposition are playing as a unit. Thankfully that was rare
Actually they are counter terrorism worst nightmare, given the majority of them end up on the black market.
What could possibly go wrong sending advanced munitions to the most corrupt country in Europe?
The missile knows where it is because it knows where it isn't.
Idt cope cages were ever really for Javelin or NLAW. They were for drones, rpg 7, and to make it safer and more comfortable to have the hatch open. Even many American armored vehicles had a similar protection system, a cage armor, intended for rpg7 and I imagnine it would work against AT-4.
The news about Javelin and NLAW was in full hype mode when the Ukraine war started and we saw images of tanks with cope cages and so people naturally related the two even though the cope cages were for a different purpose.
The javelin, an £80.000 missile fired by a soldier that doesn’t make that a year, firing it at people that won’t make that £80k in a lifetime.
Yep, welcome to first world warfare, fly fly wind, tip of the spear!
they are ment to destroy multi million dollar tanks that Russia has lost alot of
It's designed to pulverize million dollar tanks
That's what happens when you arrive uninvited with the intent to seize.
Take care with the choice you make, especially if that choice is to allow others to make choices for you.
Yeah. Don't invade your neighbor. Then nobody would need to fire anything at anybody.
The Javelin is not the problem.
Simon, merry Christmas
O blessed be Saint Javelin \o/
Excellent, informative presentation as always. Thank you!
Note to the cameraman.... I think you have focused on the background. To my eyes, Simon looks a bit blurry 🤷♂️
Love that you repeatedly show clips of NLAW being fired in a Javelin video!!!
0:05 It was so deadly that was the reason Russia took Marynka today from the Ukrainian army.
Russia taking two years to take a small town is not a flex lil bro
So deadly Russia, the 2nd largest military on earth, still hasn't won a conventional war they started 2 years ago