The BGM-71 TOW ("Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank missile
will remain in the U.S. Army's anti-tank arsenal through the mid-2030s. That is impressive given that the weapon system was first developed in the 1960s and has been in service since 1970.

The first generation of the TOW was used to bust North Vietnamese tanks in 1972—the first time ever that American troops fired an American-made missile under wartime conditions. Since then it has been the staple anti-tank guided missile on dozens of different vehicle platforms including the M2/M3 Bradley, COBRA helicopters and the USMC's LAV-AT. It has been deployed to more than twenty international armed forces and has remained the preferred heavy assault anti-tank weapon system for NATO, coalition, United Nations, and peacekeeping forces around the 

Despite the fact that the weapon has been in service for fifty years, which is ancient by some military hardware standards, the TOW has gone through steady improvements since it was first developed by Hughes Aircraft Company. This has included an extended probe for greater standoff and penetration, along with an enhanced flight motor. In the late 1980s, the TOW 2 hardware improvements included a thermal beacon guidance system, while the 2A version gave the capability to defeat reactive armor.

The weapons system is now being produced by Raytheon Systems Company, which in 2010 upgraded the system to a wireless guidance system—thus changing the "W" in TOW from "wire-guided" to "wireless." In October 2015 the company also introduced the TOW EagleFire launcher, which could fire the wire-guided as well as wireless radio frequency missiles.SOURCE:nationalinterest

 

With these new improvements, the TOW has remained an effective and powerful anti-tank weapons platform.
https://www.hallabolexpress.com/