thedrifter
06-29-05, 08:17 AM
July 04, 2005
Anti-armor missile a direct hit with unit
Gunny praises Javelin in letter to manufacturer
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — With a group of enemy fighters nearby, the platoon commander on a Fallujah rooftop made a quick call: Get Javelin up here.
Since it entered the arsenal in 1999, the guided anti-armor missile has developed its share of fans and critics. Some combat veterans have praised its accuracy, some have criticized it as inaccurate and others have complained it is too heavy.
Gunnery Sgt. Christian P. Wade had heard the scuttlebutt, good and bad, but felt confident in his training and the weapon itself. And, frankly, he and his fellow leathernecks with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, were counting on it. Insurgent fighters had maneuvered their way onto the Iraqi street during fighting there last fall and were firing rocket-propelled grenades, Wade recalled. As mortar rounds and grenades flew through the air, the platoon leader on the rooftop identified a single-story concrete building that housed the fighters.
So the Combined Anti-Armor Team platoon sergeant, already loaded with 60 pounds of weapons and gear, grabbed Javelin and headed up to the roof. It would be the first time that Wade, a 17-year veteran, would fire a live Javelin missile in combat.
The missile worked exactly as intended.
Wade’s battalion fired 28 Javelin missiles during the November assault on Fallujah. He was so psyched about their performance that he wrote to the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, shortly after he returned to Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“Your missile system was most impressive in its accuracy and effectiveness against insurgent positions,” he wrote. “I even fired one myself, destroying an enemy … position that was causing us serious grief. We trusted the missile system enough to fire it in close proximity to friendly forces, something we do not do with the TOW.”
He wasn’t sure if he would get a reply to the March 4 letter he sent to an e-mail address he found on Lockheed’s Web site.
“I didn’t ever expect them to read it,” he said. The last thing he expected was “thank you.”
But his note was forwarded to Stan Arthur, a retired admiral and president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Fla., who replied March 8 with a note of thanks. This spring, while visiting family and friends in Florida, Wade toured the manufacturing plant in Ocala and met with workers.
At the time, Wade was only the second service member to provide firsthand feedback to Lockheed, according to Randy Tatum, the business development director.
The company has received “no negative feedback from either service on the performance … in Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said.
The company is planning two upgrades, he said, starting with improvements to the command launch unit in late 2006 and an as-yet-unfunded new seeking unit on the front of the missile.
Javelin, built as a joint venture between Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed, can hit targets at twice the distance and penetrate and hit bunkers more easily than the older Dragon system. By looking through a command launch unit with the missile launcher on his shoulder, the gunner can lock on a target, fire the missile and get out of the way of any incoming enemy fire.
The Army awarded a $1.2 billion, four-year contract in 2002 for nearly 3,000 command launch units and 12,000 missiles. And this spring, the service will spend another $95 million for 120 launch units and 1,038 missiles. According to officials with the Raytheon/Lockheed Martin team, more than 1,000 missiles have been fired during combat operations in Iraq.
Much of the performance criticism Javelin has received stems from a lack of training, inadequate simulator training and the paucity of missiles to fire in training, a group of top Marine infantry weapons experts found in summer 2003.
Only a few of Wade’s Marines had fired one before going to Iraq, for example, but simulators helped train him on the system, he said.
“It’s so easy to learn how to operate,” he said. “It’s my requirement that every Marine in my platoon knows every weapon system to be able to perform in combat.”
Long-distance punch
The Javelin anti-tank missile system, by the numbers:
Length 47.8 inches
Weight (ready to fire) Less than 50 ounds
Missile weight 35 pounds
Maximum effective range 2,000-plus meters
Sights Integrated day/night system
Sight magnification 4X day, 4X and 9X night
Guidance system Fire-and-forget infrared missile
Flight time 4.6 seconds at 1,000 meters; 14.5 seconds at 2,000 meters
Reload time 20 seconds
Firing restrictions 2 sq. meter ventilation area recommended (approximate size of an open door)
Source: Marine Corps
Ellie
Anti-armor missile a direct hit with unit
Gunny praises Javelin in letter to manufacturer
By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
OCEANSIDE, Calif. — With a group of enemy fighters nearby, the platoon commander on a Fallujah rooftop made a quick call: Get Javelin up here.
Since it entered the arsenal in 1999, the guided anti-armor missile has developed its share of fans and critics. Some combat veterans have praised its accuracy, some have criticized it as inaccurate and others have complained it is too heavy.
Gunnery Sgt. Christian P. Wade had heard the scuttlebutt, good and bad, but felt confident in his training and the weapon itself. And, frankly, he and his fellow leathernecks with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, were counting on it. Insurgent fighters had maneuvered their way onto the Iraqi street during fighting there last fall and were firing rocket-propelled grenades, Wade recalled. As mortar rounds and grenades flew through the air, the platoon leader on the rooftop identified a single-story concrete building that housed the fighters.
So the Combined Anti-Armor Team platoon sergeant, already loaded with 60 pounds of weapons and gear, grabbed Javelin and headed up to the roof. It would be the first time that Wade, a 17-year veteran, would fire a live Javelin missile in combat.
The missile worked exactly as intended.
Wade’s battalion fired 28 Javelin missiles during the November assault on Fallujah. He was so psyched about their performance that he wrote to the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, shortly after he returned to Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“Your missile system was most impressive in its accuracy and effectiveness against insurgent positions,” he wrote. “I even fired one myself, destroying an enemy … position that was causing us serious grief. We trusted the missile system enough to fire it in close proximity to friendly forces, something we do not do with the TOW.”
He wasn’t sure if he would get a reply to the March 4 letter he sent to an e-mail address he found on Lockheed’s Web site.
“I didn’t ever expect them to read it,” he said. The last thing he expected was “thank you.”
But his note was forwarded to Stan Arthur, a retired admiral and president of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Fla., who replied March 8 with a note of thanks. This spring, while visiting family and friends in Florida, Wade toured the manufacturing plant in Ocala and met with workers.
At the time, Wade was only the second service member to provide firsthand feedback to Lockheed, according to Randy Tatum, the business development director.
The company has received “no negative feedback from either service on the performance … in Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said.
The company is planning two upgrades, he said, starting with improvements to the command launch unit in late 2006 and an as-yet-unfunded new seeking unit on the front of the missile.
Javelin, built as a joint venture between Raytheon Corp. and Lockheed, can hit targets at twice the distance and penetrate and hit bunkers more easily than the older Dragon system. By looking through a command launch unit with the missile launcher on his shoulder, the gunner can lock on a target, fire the missile and get out of the way of any incoming enemy fire.
The Army awarded a $1.2 billion, four-year contract in 2002 for nearly 3,000 command launch units and 12,000 missiles. And this spring, the service will spend another $95 million for 120 launch units and 1,038 missiles. According to officials with the Raytheon/Lockheed Martin team, more than 1,000 missiles have been fired during combat operations in Iraq.
Much of the performance criticism Javelin has received stems from a lack of training, inadequate simulator training and the paucity of missiles to fire in training, a group of top Marine infantry weapons experts found in summer 2003.
Only a few of Wade’s Marines had fired one before going to Iraq, for example, but simulators helped train him on the system, he said.
“It’s so easy to learn how to operate,” he said. “It’s my requirement that every Marine in my platoon knows every weapon system to be able to perform in combat.”
Long-distance punch
The Javelin anti-tank missile system, by the numbers:
Length 47.8 inches
Weight (ready to fire) Less than 50 ounds
Missile weight 35 pounds
Maximum effective range 2,000-plus meters
Sights Integrated day/night system
Sight magnification 4X day, 4X and 9X night
Guidance system Fire-and-forget infrared missile
Flight time 4.6 seconds at 1,000 meters; 14.5 seconds at 2,000 meters
Reload time 20 seconds
Firing restrictions 2 sq. meter ventilation area recommended (approximate size of an open door)
Source: Marine Corps
Ellie