Posted on 02/27/2016 5:52:32 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
In a video posted to YouTube Friday, Syrian rebels appear to have filmed themselves firing for the first time a U.S.-made TOW anti-tank missile at a Russian T-90 tank.
According to the video’s caption, the TOW strike occurred in the Syrian town of Sheikh Aqil, a suburb just northwest of Aleppo.
The BGM-71 TOW is an aging wire-guided anti-tank missile system that the United States has been supplying to CIA-vetted Syrian rebels. Since their first appearance in 2014, the missiles have popped up throughout the war-torn country, often in videos showing rebels attacking Syrian troops and government-backed militias.
Friday’s video is significant because there is very little footage, if any, of a U.S. TOW going up against one of Russia’s most modern battle tanks. In this case, it is unclear if the T-90 in the video was crewed by Russian or Syrian troops.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Here’s a question you can answer. The ‘official’ line is ALWAYS ISIL, ISIL, ISIL. Never “ISIS”.....Obama refuses to use it. Why?
Ever look up ISIL and what the prevailing meaning is? Involves regions most usually described as overlaps of several traditional conventional countries today, but most never even consider Israel in any form from what I’ve seen.
Further, while OIR IS technically multi-national, the sequence involved here is with a Russian Tank and a US TOW missile by operators who pray to Allah before and after the shot. Is that multi-national in spirit?
Bingo
Add “NoScript” for Mozilla, or similar products for other browsers, for a bit more control of those pesky page interruptions.
Were these the U.S. taxpayer funded missiles that were smuggled to the terrorists via the consulate in Benghazi?
Also, my ad tracking blocker is telling me it has to block ad-trackers from 17 services on that site.
With the kind of armor on tanks these days and the geometry a lot of things have to line up to completely take one out.
Seems like EFP projectiles do better than other types.
Believe after that failed strike, someone will be field testing an uprated can-opener against the Russian hardware.
Later
Tandem charge warhead types.
This is a comment from the “Defece Blog” link buried in the Wash Post article —
That was a direct attack TOW. Either a TOW-2 or TOW-2A with reactive armor precursor charge.
Most TOW built since the late 1990’s, or rebuilt at depot, were TOW-2B top attack versions.
Note as well that there was no wire leaving the missile in the video of the launcher.
This makes the missile one with a radio frequency guidance as opposed to wire. This upgrade happened when the wire company the US Army used went out of business in the late 1990’s.
I’d make that missile a depot rebuild direct attack TOW with R/F guidance.
It is likely the Shtora failed because one of the two circular emitters on the turret in the video was covered by the by the wall/planter to the right of the T-90 for most of the TOW’s flight path.
IOW, the Shtora countermeasures were defeated by poor crew tactics
Shooter used a TOW mark 1. A TOW II would have killed the tank. The anti-missile system did not respond because when the hatches are open the system is off; crew climbs out because he is still acting as if he was in an older T-60 or T-72 where such a strike would have killed the tank showing is poorly trained in use of T-90; further having hatches open and standing in the open so long in combat situation is another indication of bad training.
That the missile did no damage to the tank is indicated by lack of smoke from barrel and that he film was cut off. Did the tank respond? If they did, was the result similar to the one below?
I posted a link to a guy firing a Metis M at a T-90 which took between 2 and 5 seconds to respond ... result: Mustafa is dead.
Mustafa fires his 9K115-2 Metis-M missile ... (:50 mark)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aTVRYCeNwg
Yep, looks like it hit near the top of the turret, a glancing hit.
The angle of the strike shows the TOW hit above the T-90’s barrel with a slight upward angle.
The shaped charge debris stream, assuming a penetration, was not on a path that would have set off main gun ammunition propellant.
I suspect that tank commander on the left side hatch in the video was dead (as in messily decapitated) or severely injured, hence his gunner leaving the right tank hatch in the video.
I agree we are looking at a poor tank crew.
Noticed the same thing when the rebels used a TOW on a broken helicopter. They must be picking the swiftest guys in the group who can remember the steps.
“CIA-vetted Syrian rebels”
OK, now I’m nervous. Next video will show ISIS using these missiles against the US or our allies.
thank you I will try that
The version I saw was so bad I could not make out if there was anyone in the commanders hatch. According to others elsewhere the missile did not penetrate and no damage was done - the tank later drove off. Some one claimed the crewman climbing out was minus a arm - have no way of verifying that, however.
Interesting.
Did it occur to you that Russia's allies in this war are also Muslims and also shout the same stuff?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.