The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: rangerrebew on January 04, 2019, 02:57:08 pm
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U.S. Military May Be Targeted by Its Own Missiles in Middle East
By Tom O'Connor On 1/2/19 at 3:08 PM
Advanced weapons capable of piercing through armored vehicles and developed by the United States have been found in the hands of insurgent groups across the Middle East and may pose a threat to U.S. forces there.
The anti-tank guided missile, or ATGM, is a type of rocket launcher that can be used to guide a projectile toward its target via console controls and thin wires or laser technology. One of the most popular U.S.-made systems is the BGM-71 TOW, which stands for "Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided," a weapon that has been used in combat since the Vietnam War and in the Middle East at least since the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
By the time the Syrian civil war broke out in 2011, the Syrian military had amassed its own arsenal of Soviet-era ATGMs, a number of which fell in the hands of rebels and jihadis attempting to overthrow the government. The insurgency's stockpile grew, however, as the U.S. began to send TOW missiles to opposition fighters, a move that would have devastating results for Syria's tank force.
https://www.newsweek.com/us-military-targeted-own-missiles-middle-eeast-1277293 (https://www.newsweek.com/us-military-targeted-own-missiles-middle-eeast-1277293)