Saddam Hussein's eldest sons, Uday and Qusay, knew their time was running out. They had
disobeyed their father's advice of splitting up to prevent the Americans from hunting them down and
were now paying the price of their disobedience. Even so, the two brothers and their bodyguards
were fighting like lions, cornered by the American 101st Division at the palatial Mosul villa.
The US troops tried to destroy the villa with launchers and artillery fire with little success,
and Uday and Qusay barricaded themselves on the second floor,
believing they were safe behind the bulletproof glass panels.
However, they didn’t count on the US forces bringing the most lethal
anti-tank missile ever developed to the forefront…
Anti-Tank Missile
In the aftermath of World War 2, the British,
French, and American armies took inspiration from the Luftwaffe’s
Ruhrstahl X-4 wire-guided missile to develop a high-explosive anti-tank missile system.
Testing and development drastically increased in the early 1960s with the
Heavy Assault Weapon for the Long Range Time Period or HAW concept.
The West was now in the middle of the Cold War against the Soviet Union and required a
solution to get rid of Soviet armor at range if a Communist invasion ever took place.
The American MGM-51 Shillelagh missile and its capacity to be tracked with an
infrared seeker became the focus of a weapon that could be guided
straight into an objective and be adjusted mid-course.
As such, the flare attached to the missile was switched for an infrared lamp, and the firing
mechanism became a tube from which the missile could be launched to be adequately tracked.
Programmer Harry Reed baptized the missile as the TOW, short for tube-launched,
optically tracked, wire-guided missile.
Hello Vietnam!
The Army initially wanted to use the TOW in helicopters, but the requirement
was quickly dropped. Three designs were eventually delivered by McDonnell, Martin,
and Hughes, each with its own innovative features, but Hughes ultimately prevailed.
After several setbacks, production began in 1969. TOW was then introduced to the
armed forces in September of 1970, replacing the M40 recoilless rifle.
The weapon became the longest-range and heaviest anti-tank missile in the world.
The system had several modules, including the launch tube, a folding tripod mount, a daylight
tracker unit, a traversing unit with the trigger, a bridging clamp, and the launch tube sight.
It was also equipped with a separate fire control system module and a battery pack.
The basic TOW weighed 18.9 kilograms and had a length of 1.17 meters. The
HEAT warhead weighed 3.9 kilograms and had a range
of over three kilometers with speeds that ranged from 200 to 300 meters per second.
TOW could be used by the infantry but could also be mounted on the M151 jeep and the M113 APC.
The first TOW units arrived in Vietnam in April of 1972 as part
of the 1st Combat Aerial TOW Team. The team comprised technicians from Bell, Hughes,
and Army Aviation and Missile Command to test the missile against enemy armor.
On May 2, Huey helicopters successfully destroyed several North Vietnamese tanks near An Loc
employing TOW missiles. Weeks later, American and South Vietnamese soldiers destroyed over 25 T-54
tanks and PT-76 amphibious light tanks with TOW missiles stationed across different firebases.
Many more enemy armor was destroyed by TOWs until the South fell in 1975. By then,
the army had more plans for the missile, making it even more devastating in the coming years.
Tours of Duty
The Army introduced the BGM-71C in 1976, featuring an improved shape for the warhead
and an extensible probe that triggered and improved the detonation distance.
This TOW could penetrate up to 630 millimeters of armor.
TOW 2 was introduced in 1983 and had a reusable launcher,
a new missile guidance system, and a new sight. It was also equipped with a
warhead that could penetrate 900 millimeters of armor at ranges of up to 3.75 kilometers.
During this period, TOWs were sold to Israel for the Lebanon War and the Iran-Iraq War.
The Israelis distributed their anti-tank teams effectively and,
by the end of the conflict, had destroyed over 30 Soviet T72s with TOW missiles.
The Iranians also used the TOW effectively during the fight against Iraq,
destroying several enemy tanks and even Mil Mi-24 aircraft with it.
The upgraded TOW 2s saw action with the American forces during the 1991
Gulf War as part of Operation Desert Storm. They were mounted on M2 and
M3 Bradleys and destroyed more enemy tanks than the colossal M1A1 Abrams.
Hussein's Two Sons
During the Iraq War in 2003, the US Army and the CIA had
been hunting down Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, with little success.
Qusay Hussein, 37, was the designated successor and led Iraq's elite Special Republican Guard
military force. Uday Hussein, 39, was a publisher and commanded his father’s Fedayeen militia.
The population feared and despised both men for their cruelty and despotism,
and the US believed that eliminating these High-Value Targets, or HVTs,
would have a significant impact on the morale of the Iraqi armed forces.
In June of 2003, Uday and Qusay established themselves in the palatial Mosul villa,
disobeying their father’s advice to split up for their own safety. Soon, an Iraqi informant that
was close to the brothers and working for the CIA relayed the location of the HVTs to the Americans.
At 10:00am on Tuesday, July 22, paratroopers from the 101st and elements of Task Force 20,
comprising CIA operatives and Special Operations forces,
arrived at the residence with one objective in mind: to get rid of the Hussein brothers.
The TOWs Strike
The troops surrounded the Mosul villa with Humvees armed with .50-caliber machine guns,
as well as Avenger and TOW missiles.
The villa's occupants were then offered the chance to surrender, but they refused.
At 10:10am, the firefight broke out after members of the 101st attempted to break into the house.
The Iraqi guards opened fire with AK47s and wounded three
American soldiers as they made their way to the second floor.
Ten minutes later, more American troops arrived to offer support,
and the soldiers unleashed their .50-caliber machine guns and rockets into the building.
Kiowa helicopters were called in to target the building, but the Iraqi forces held firm inside.
Then, at midday, the 101st tried to enter the building a second time.
The men cleared the first floor, but the surviving Iraqis,
including Uday and Qusay, hid behind a barricaded room with bulletproof glass.
By then, the over 200 American personnel were tired of the enemy resistance,
and the commander decided to call in a devastating strike of ten TOW missiles fired from Humvees.
A reign of fire demolished the structure, and with little more than rubble and debris left,
the Americans finally reached the second floor and seized the building.
The soldiers soon found the remains of the Hussein brothers and removed them.
Some of the TOW missiles had directly penetrated the room and finished off the people inside.
The mission was accomplished.
Close Combat Missile System-Heavy
In the mid-2010s, the Army began preliminary research to develop a replacement for the
more than 50-year-old TOW anti-tank missile. Despite its many upgrades,
which have enhanced its lethality, the Army is finally ready to say goodbye to the legendary TOW.
According to a report written by Todd South for the Army Times,
the replacement for the TOW will be the Close Combat Missile System-Heavy or CCMS-H.
The Army expects this vehicle-mounted missile to have twice the distance of
the TOW, with an estimated range of over 10,000 meters or 6.21 miles.
Additionally, the CCMS-H will be drastically faster, reaching its intended target in less
than a minute, making it lethal as a long-range weapon. However,
this has not stopped the Army from envisioning this replacement for use at closer ranges.
During the April 2021 conference of the Maneuver Capabilities Development and Integration
Directorate at Fort Benning, Georgia, Mark Andrews, chief of the Close Capabilities Branch,
told the Army Times that this new weapon would fulfill the same roles as the TOW,
including destroying armor, fortifying positions, and counter-defilade.
Andrews added: (QUOTE) “The new missile will need to reach those farther distances but also
be able to strike at shorter ranges. We want it armed early; we don’t want to wait 1,000
or 2,000 meters for the missile to arm. We want to get it at less than 100 meters.”
Captain Ari Perril gave more details about the new missile during the conference, stating that the
Army also wants it to use a command line-of-sight, , with lock one before and after launch.
Perril noted the missile will also be able to target directly from a drone
feed or a laser designator. The missile must also be able to defeat any active
protection systems that can render it useless against hostile countermeasures.
If everything proceeds as planned, the TOW replacement will soon support allied
forces at the company or troop level in firefights against hostile armor.
For the time being, the TOW will continue its reign as the ultimate
anti-tank missile until its replacement is delivered.
As of 2022, more than 700,000 TOW systems had been delivered to the US and its allies.
And while the replacement arrives, the Army could extend the missile's life cycle beyond 2030.
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