Tube-launched,
Optically tracked,
Wire-guided missile

TOW is the US Army and Marine Corp's primary antitank weapon and the anti-armor weapon on over 15,000 TOW launchers worldwide. These weapon systems include the M113 TOW, M901 ITV, M998 Highly Mobile Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), TOW 2 ground launcher, M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV/CFV), and numerous others. Airborne TOW is used on Cobra, MD 500, A129, A109, Bell 260L, Bo 105, and Lynx helicopters. Hughes Aircraft Company has manufactured TOW missiles and launchers for 40 countries with over 600,000 missiles delivered since 1970. The most lethal of the TOW missiles, the TOW 2A and TOW 2B missiles, are currently being produced by Hughes Missile Systems Company in Tucson Arizona. The TOW 2A missile was developed in conjunction with the US Army by Hughes Missile Systems Company to counter advances in the armor threat created by the advent of reactive armor. TOW 2A incorporates a tandem warhead armament system to achieve increased lethality against tanks configured with reactive armor. The precursor warhead in the missile probe is designed to set off the explosive in a tank's reactive armor, clearing the way for the primary warhead to penetrate the tank's main armor. As with all the other members of the TOW missile family, TOW 2A can be fired from any of the TOW launchers. In conjunction with the US Army, Hughes Missile Systems Company has developed a new, more lethal version of the TOW missile that will attack tanks from the top where they are most vulnerable. TOW 2B features a dual-mode sensor and a new armament section with two warheads substantially different from those used in other TOW versions. The TOW 2B is designed to fly over the top of the tank and destroy it from above, where it is less heavily armored, by simultaneously detonating the missile's two Explosively Formed Penetrator (EFP) downward pointing warheads. Through advances in digital electronics, countermeasure performance and warhead lethality, the TOW missile has been able to remain a generation ahead of the armor threat and the free world's #1 choice for a lethal, combat proven antiarmor missile well into the next century.

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