Russia develops its very own “Javelin” anti-tank missile

Russia has initiated the development of its own variant of man-portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile system, according to Roman Spirin, the chairman of science and technology committee of the Committee of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (GRAU).

The Russian defense industry has initiated the development of a new generation of an anti-tank missile system, which does not require further guidance after launch such as illumination of the target or wire guidance, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line-of-sight of the target.

According to Roman Spirin, in the immediate future, it is planned to develop a unified wearable and multipurpose self-propelled anti-tank missile systems, which implement the principle of quick-reaction and fire-and-forget.

This will allow effectively use the complex when conducting combat in urbanized terrain and significantly expand combat capabilities of this class weapons, providing the opportunity melee tactical zone of a wide range of moving and stationary targets.

This is an important property for a guided weapon to have since a person or vehicle that lingers near the target to guide the missile (using, for instance, a laser designator) is vulnerable to attack and unable to carry out other tasks.

As reported previously, the NPO High Precision Systems (“Vysokotochnye Kompleksy”) holding company several months ago announced the development of the next-generation anti-tank missile system with fire and forget capability during the Army-2018 international military and technical forum.

According to the report of the Zvezda TV channel, the holding company is developing a new generation of missiles for destroying tanks and other types of the armor.

To date, one of the most modern Russian anti-tank missiles is a Kornet with a laser guidance system. The Russian Kornet can penetrate from 1200 mm to 1400 mm.