I thought the tow's range was only like 3000 yards and actually that's hard because of the need to optically guide it -- you gotta keep your eyes on your target throughout the flight of the missile. You can't have trees or hills in between because of the gunner's need for line of sight.
Since the gunner has to have line of sight, that means he has to be out in the open and the backblast from the missile launch gives such a big signature that the gunner is a sitting duck.
The javelin (heat signature?) locks on and then ELEVATES and comes down on the target. In the meantime, the gunner who fired it is running away to fire again and/or hide. I believe the Javelin's effective range is further than the tow's supposedly was.
We need an infantry guy in here. Hey travis, can you help us out?
Actually, the range limit on the TOW is 3,750 meters. To give you an idea how far that is, it's over 2.3 MILES. The minimum range is 100-200 meters (to let the launcher acquire the missile). In open country, it kills tanks. It was an absolute gem in Operation Desert Storm.
Most manportable AT weapons only go about 200 to 1,000 yards effectively--and the really small ones (M72 LAW, AT4, Carl Gustav, RPG-7, and the Panzerfaust III) are at the low end of the spectrum. (When I was a young recruit, the LAW instructor told me "Close in on the target until you think you're too close--and then get even closer.")
Since the gunner has to have line of sight, that means he has to be out in the open and the backblast from the missile launch gives such a big signature that the gunner is a sitting duck.
True--but most enemy tanks can't engage past about 2,000 meters with the main gun, and returning fire with a missile means that it's a race between a missile on the way and a missile that's late leaving the launcher.