Sending it Blasting through your feed, an FGM-148 Javelin is fired by 2nd/1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment during Exercise Kleidi Pass. The FGM-148 Javelin Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M) is a highly effective anti-armour ‘fire and forget’ missile system for infantry. This shoulder-fired precision missile is designed to destroy tanks and other armoured vehicles, as well as hovering helicopters. This weapon can be fired in two modes; top attack or direct trajectory, and can be operated in both the man-portable and vehicle mounted roles. The Javelin is operated by soldiers from New Zealand Army’s Fire Support Group within each infantry battalion.
The Javelin Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium were part of the Army’s $26 million modernisation project announced in 2001. The cost included a number of missiles, spare parts and manuals, and covered the cost of initial training for operators, ammunition technicians and those maintaining the system. The Javelin Command Launch Unit (CLU) consists of a launch tube assembled to a targeting and control unit. The targeting unit has sensors allowing the weapon to fire under adverse weather conditions, day and night. The Army said the Javelin system came with indoor and outdoor simulators which meant 92 per cent of operators overseas achieved a first-time hit with live ammunition.
The FGM-148 Javelin, or Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M), is an American-made portable anti-tank missile system in service since 1996, and continuously upgraded. It replaced the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service. Its fire-and-forget design uses automatic infrared guidance that allows the user to seek cover immediately after launch, in contrast to wire-guided systems, like the system used by the Dragon, which require a user to guide the weapon throughout the engagement. The Javelin’s high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead can defeat modern tanks by top attack, hitting them from above, where their armor is thinnest, and is also useful against fortifications in a direct attack flight.
Javelin takes a top attack flight profile against armored vehicles, attacking the usually thinner top armor, but can also make a direct attack, for use against buildings, targets too close for top attack, targets under obstructions and helicopters. It can reach a peak altitude of 150 m (490 ft) in top attack mode and 60 m (200 ft) in direct attack mode. Initial versions had a range of 2,000 m (6,600 ft), later increased to 2,500 m (8,200 ft). It is equipped with an imaging infrared seeker. The tandem warhead is fitted with two shaped charges: a precursor warhead to detonate any explosive reactive armor and a primary warhead to penetrate base armor.
