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Quoted: You have not lived until you have been stuck on a range detail, ran by a maniacal Spec5 from Guam, spending the day walking down Red Cloud Golf Range....winding up TOW wires. Makes burning shit seem pleasant. View Quote was that a army requirement/ or a maniacal guamanian requirement?? |
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Quoted: The wires are electrically cut inside the tube and fall to the ground. As a general rule, we always hit the manual cut as a precaution. I was part of a live fire demonstration in Germany back in 87. I was forward in a screen when the scripted call for real arty came over the radio. My cue to move back to a covered position closer to the observation stands. As I tucked between two trees, I saw a TOW wire slide up and over the canopy. I was flying from the backseat and decided I better put it down, now, before the wire spooled up in the rotors. I remembered an incident happening years prior where a OH58 got stuck up in a fence and the fence wire spooled up and the Kiowa flipped over. Lots of dignitaries and visitors in the stands and I didn’t want to ruin the demonstration. Also didn’t want live arty dropping on my head. I accomplished a running landing then rolled the throttle back to idle in case we were tangled up. I jumped out and ran around the a/c but didn’t find any wire. I was very happy the Wire Strike Protection System did it’s job. As I was strapping in, I yelled to the front seater to “Roll it up!” and we were out of there. Total time on the ground, less than 2 minutes, no delays to the dog and pony show. Requested to leave the range and straight back to parking to shut down and get a detailed inspection. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: I had one of my squadron's Cobra's come back from shooting a TOW at 29 Palms with the wire wrapped around the rotor mast. We were very fortunate with that one. TOW wire is fucking STRONG. We cut it off with bolt cutters. The wires are electrically cut inside the tube and fall to the ground. As a general rule, we always hit the manual cut as a precaution. I was part of a live fire demonstration in Germany back in 87. I was forward in a screen when the scripted call for real arty came over the radio. My cue to move back to a covered position closer to the observation stands. As I tucked between two trees, I saw a TOW wire slide up and over the canopy. I was flying from the backseat and decided I better put it down, now, before the wire spooled up in the rotors. I remembered an incident happening years prior where a OH58 got stuck up in a fence and the fence wire spooled up and the Kiowa flipped over. Lots of dignitaries and visitors in the stands and I didn’t want to ruin the demonstration. Also didn’t want live arty dropping on my head. I accomplished a running landing then rolled the throttle back to idle in case we were tangled up. I jumped out and ran around the a/c but didn’t find any wire. I was very happy the Wire Strike Protection System did it’s job. As I was strapping in, I yelled to the front seater to “Roll it up!” and we were out of there. Total time on the ground, less than 2 minutes, no delays to the dog and pony show. Requested to leave the range and straight back to parking to shut down and get a detailed inspection. There was a failure on the wire cutting squib. These were the last TOW missiles my squadron fired, December 2011. TOW was a pain in the ass on AH-1Ws. |
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Quoted: was that a army requirement/ or a maniacal guamanian requirement?? View Quote Definitely an Army requirement, but carried out with great zeal by SP5 Navvaro. |
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I dont know about choppers, but after our fight at Jalibah Airfield on 2-27-91, TOW wires were draped and tangled all over the outside of our Bradleys.
Nice to know your buddies were shooting TOWs all will-nilly over the battlefield. |
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Quoted: Doesn't the W in TOW literally stand for wire? I guess maybe it stands for wireless. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Wire guided TOW are so 1970s. RF guided TOW are so hot right now. Kharn Doesn't the W in TOW literally stand for wire? I guess maybe it stands for wireless. Yep. should be TORF. |
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Those wires can cut the shit out of your legs when you're walking around those ranges wearing shorts.
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So question I always assume or question or what. But I've never heard a legit answer.
Where does the spoiled wire come from? Does it come from the rocket or from the launch tube. If it's the launch tube wouldn't that shit get hung up on bs? I just didn't know. |
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Quoted: So question I always assume or question or what. But I've never heard a legit answer. Where does the spoiled wire come from? Does it come from the rocket or from the launch tube. If it's the launch tube wouldn't that shit get hung up on bs? I just didn't know. View Quote The wires have to be recovered from any ranges because they are a deadly hazard to anyone who happens to be a head higher than they are - and they tend to be strung over trees. Luckily Range Control has electric reels that wind that shit up, but it sucks when they break. |
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Quoted: Huh. "The wire from a TOW missile is secured at firing point 5 on range 19 at Fort McCoy, Wis., on March 14, 2016. " https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/145185/R90F1D-2036233.jpg View Quote |
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Quoted: It's in the missile, which is contained in a throw-away tube that has the wires terminated in it. The wires have to be recovered from any ranges because they are a deadly hazard to anyone who happens to be a head higher than they are - and they tend to be strung over trees. Luckily Range Control has electric reels that wind that shit up, but it sucks when they break. View Quote I can tell you that this device was non existent in 1984.... Unless this device looks like a PFC with a stick.... |
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Quoted: that's wouldn't be a tow then, it would be a torf. you do understand what the "w" means, right? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Wire guided TOW are so 1970s. RF guided TOW are so hot right now. Kharn that's wouldn't be a tow then, it would be a torf. you do understand what the "w" means, right? Institutional momentum is a hell of a thing. Raytheon calls it "Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wireless-guided" to still give it the TOW acronym. Kharn |
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For us ground based TOW gunners, wire recovery on a TOW range, especially with movers,can be a miserable part of range clearance. Range control is never happy
I would think that the air crews never have to deal with wire. It's just gone and snapped off and drapped over the countryside below |
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IIRC the wire is pretty thin but ridiculously strong. The stuff I had to unwrap from the drive sprocket and final drive of an M-60 was a reddish-copper color like the hair of a pretty Irish redhead girl. That stuff is the devil though. It cut through the oil seal of the final drive and deadlined the vehicle.
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Quoted: IIRC the wire is pretty thin but ridiculously strong. The stuff I had to unwrap from the drive sprocket and final drive of an M-60 was a reddish-copper color like the hair of a pretty Irish redhead girl. That stuff is the devil though. It cut through the oil seal of the final drive and deadlined the vehicle. View Quote holy shit that's bad |
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Quoted: If it's RF guided is it still a TOW or is it a TORF or something? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Wire guided TOW are so 1970s. RF guided TOW are so hot right now. Kharn If it's RF guided is it still a TOW or is it a TORF or something? Tube Launched, Optically Tracked, Wireless. |
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Quoted: Yes, but to clarify for others.. During peacetime or not in a hostile area they are rarely dropped. They are reused and maintained regularly. They would only be dropped in an emergency. During an actual confilct or mission etc, they could/would be dropped after emptying. View Quote I remember seeing an article of picture a while back about the Vietnamese using them to make canoes/boats |
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Quoted: They freefall to the ground. They don't "explode". View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Sorta along the same lines...What happens when a fighter jet that has external fuel tanks jettisons those tanks? Are their parachutes in the tanks? Or do they just crash/explode into the ground? They freefall to the ground. They don't "explode". They should release them while inverted.....no worries about them hitting anything if they go up |
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They get hung up in the rotor shaft
It's called flying with wire |
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Quoted: Sorta along the same lines...What happens when a fighter jet that has external fuel tanks jettisons those tanks? Are their parachutes in the tanks? Or do they just crash/explode into the ground? View Quote There's big fluffy pillows that pop out of the bottom of the external tanks to cushion the landing. They wouldn't want to hurt anyone that they just bombed. |
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