5 ms·
- Can't be jammed - Simple - No radio frequency indication of an incoming missile. There must be other reasons as well.
by NwtnsMthd 4y ago
- Can't be jammed
- Simple
- No radio frequency indication of an incoming missile.
There must be other reasons as well.
- stavros 4y agoI agree with the first and last point, but reliably unrolling a 4km wire while going 500 kmh cannot be simple.
- MarkMarine 4y agoThey seem to work quite effectively, I've never seen a TOW fail. Downside is you need to maintain visual guidance of the missile through it's whole flight path.
- stavros 4y agoWhile I don't doubt you, I will say that, technically, I've never seen a TOW fail either.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI'm envision that classic "look down and see a pile of rope unspooling around your leg right before you disappear out of frame" shtick.
- supergeek 4y agoAnyone involved in RC aircraft will gladly tell you that getting a stable radio link for video and control past 4km is anything but simple. Even a basic analog video signal is orders of magnitude more data than what you'd be transmitting in a phone call.
- stavros 4y agoLuckily, I am involved in RC aircraft. If my 5mm, $15 ELRS receiver can do 13 km without breaking a sweat, imagine what military-grade technology can do.
- baud147258 4y agoTOW missiles date back to 60s-70s, so I don't think they had access to tech that good at the time; for more modern efforts the Javelin (from the 90s) has equivalent range and no wires.
- stavros 4y agoThat makes sense, thanks. Isn't the Javelin unguided (or self-guided), though? This means it doesn't need wires not because communication with it is wireless, but because it doesn't need to communicate at all.
- baud147258 4y agoah, true, I was misremembering how it did work, I though there was some guidance done by the shooter after the missile had been fired.
- encoderer 4y agoIsn’t it crazy how much effort we still spend as a race trying to kill each other.
- norvvryo 4y agoAs long as resources are finite, conflict is inevitable. It would be foolish not to prepare for it.
- bpodgursky 4y agoI think you have to stretch to attribute the Ukraine war to a resource competition. It's about cultural hegemony.
- quickthrower2 4y agoOr cartel like behaviour? Leader needs to look tough to survive.
- refurb 4y agoDonbas region is a major industrial area for the past century. No surprise Russia wants it.
- bpodgursky 4y agoRussia has controlled a substantial portion of the Donbas for 8 years and has simply let it rot. There's no investment or utilization of that industry.
- refurb 4y ago“The Donbas represents one of the largest coal reserves in Ukraine, with estimated reserves of 60 billion tonnes of coal.”
- pifm_guy 4y agoIt's only worth investing once you've really secured it against the other side retaking it. I don't think the Donbass was ever secure against being retaken. Hence no investment. It's still strategically valuable, because you're still taking resources from the enemy.