Army Infantry improves its ability to attack and destroy enemy tanks

Infantry Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, fire an FGM-148 Javelin during a combined arms live fire exercise in Jordan on August 27, 2019, in support of Eager Lion - file photo. A small group of maneuvering infantry soldiers will soon be able to target and destroy enemy tanks at night from distances up to 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) -- by firing portable, man-carried Javelin Anti-Tank Missiles engineered with a new generation of targeting optics. The U.S. Army and Raytheon plan to enter production of a new Lightweight Command Launch Unit for the Javelin designed to bring a new level of "precision lethality to an infantry squad." The new Lightweight CLU unit enables much greater standoff distance for infantry attacking tanks by doubling the attack range from 2.5km to 4.5km, developers said. "You have to be able to speed up the kill chain and detect the adversary before he can detect you. You want to get a launch shot off before he knows you are there. It all starts with sensing," Tommy Boccardi, Javelin Domestic Business Development, Raytheon, told Warrior.