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How do wire-guided antitank missiles such as TOW receive course corrections?

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Wire-guided antitank missiles, such as the TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missile, receive course corrections through a physical link that unreels behind the projectile as it flies.12

In early versions of these systems, the guidance process was manual: an operator tracked the missile visually—often by watching a flare in its tail—and used a joystick or similar control device to transmit steering commands through the wire to the missile's internal control mechanism.13

Later, more sophisticated systems transitioned to semiautomatic guidance. In these configurations, the operator simply keeps the optical sight centered on the target. A computerized fire-control system then automatically tracks the missile and calculates the necessary course corrections, which are transmitted to the missile via the wire link. While these systems traditionally relied on thin wires, some later designs began utilizing optical fibers to transmit these guidance commands.143