<title>Recent advances in antitank missile systems and technologies</title>

Abstract

This paper focuses on the recent advances in tactical Anti- tank (ATGM) systems and related technologies. The growth profile of ATGM systems and related technologies has been discussed with special emphasis on technologies pertaining to guidance systems. 'Fire and forget' and 'Top attach' capabilities are the most important operational requirements of the third generation ATGM systems. Realization of 'Fire and forget' capability for tactical ATGMs calls for use of a passive or active homing system. The need for such a system has been the main driving factor for mobilizing the advanced technologies relating to IR and Millimetric Wave seeker based guidance systems. Generic design considerations and system constraints as well as technological aspects of these two types of guidance systems are covered. The 'Top attack' requirement calls for optimization of suitable trajectory schemes and it also impose design constants, mainly on the homing seeker. Use of tandem shaped charge warhead is essential to defeat modern tanks equipped with Explosive Reactive Armor. The implications of using the tandem shaped charge warhead on the design of the seeker as well as at system level design are briefly analyzed. In the concluding part, the emerging technological trends relating to ATGM systems with focus on guidance systems are presented.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.