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Javelin missiles: Thank DARPA for Ukraine’s success against Russian tanks
- PaulHoule 5y agoThis piece of junk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M47_Dragon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M47_Dragon was the "necessity" behind the invention of the Javelin. In 1970s and 1980s it was suspected that NATO Dragon gunners would abandon their weapon if war broke out because the Dragon was probably more dangerous to its operators than its targets. The Wikipedia article says "all that is required of the infantryman is to look through an amplifying optical sight and keep it exactly aligned with the objective." It's asking a lot, however, because the Dragon moves rather slowly and leaves a smoke trail back to the firing position. The people in the tank know they can avoid being hit if they can kill you with their machine gun. On top of that the warhead was not particularly effective against Russian MBT's at the time.