TOW Missile

The TOW missile, an acronym for Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided, is an American anti-tank guided missile developed by Hughes Aircraft, later absorbed into Raytheon, and entering United States military service in 1970 as a heavier, longer-range successor to earlier man-portable anti-tank rockets. The gunner tracks the target through an optical sight after launch, and the missile's guidance computer automatically sends steering corrections back to the missile along a thin wire that unspools in flight, a simple but effective system that proved highly resistant to the electronic jamming that could defeat some later radio-guided missile designs. First used in combat by Egyptian and, informally, other forces in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and by the United States and allied militaries in numerous conflicts since, the TOW has been mounted on vehicles, helicopters and portable ground tripods and remains, through successive wire and later fiber-optic and wireless guided variants, one of the most widely exported and combat-proven anti-tank missile systems in the world, including prominent use by Ukrainian forces in the Russo-Ukrainian War.