Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems says it has test-fired a wireless version of its TOW anti-armor missile from a Navy helicopter in a first for the venerable weapon system.
The company announced Monday that it fired two Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wireless-guided (TOW) 2A radio-frequency practice missiles from an AH-1W Cobra attack helicopter during an exercise in December.
Raytheon, working with the Naval Air Systems Command, fired the two wireless TOWs at ranges of more than 2,600 meters. The two tests verified the missile's capability to be fired from a hovering aircraft and from an aircraft maneuvering to a threat, Raytheon said, adding that both missiles hit their targets within inches of aimpoints.
Wire-guided TOW missiles have been fired from helicopters for years, but the test shots show the wireless version can be fired off platforms used with wired TOWs without modifications, Michelle Lohmeier, vice president of Raytheon Land Warfare Systems, said in a news release.
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While the wireless TOW is routinely fired from ground platforms, it had not been fired from an airborne platform until the December test, Raytheon said.
First fielded in 1970, the TOW has been continually upgraded and is in service in more than 40 international armed forces on more than 15,000 ground, vehicle and helicopter platforms worldwide.
The air-launched TOW has been an important part of combined-arms operations such as coastal defense missions, Lohmeier said, adding that the test shots show the weapon is “fully capable of defeating modern threat targets and will be a viable asset of a nation's arsenal for the foreseeable future."
Raytheon says it has delivered more than 690,000 TOW missiles to U.S. and allied forces. The TOW is expected be in service with the U.S. military beyond 2025.
