DEVELOPMENT :
Systems & Electronics Inc developed the TOW Under-Armour (TUA) turret to allow the crew to launch and guide the TOW missile system from defilade whilst also protected by armour. Only 1 m{2} of TUA is exposed to hostile fire and this area is completely separate from the crew location. The TUA tow-tube elevating launcher fires any of the TOW missile variants: Basic TOW, Improved TOW (I-TOW), TOW-2A, TOW-2B and future TOW missile configurations. A description of the TOW missile is given in the Vehicle-mounted anti-tank guided weapons section of this book. The original TUA turret was designed for the US Army M901/M901A1 Improved TOW Vehicle (ITV) utilising the M113A1 APC chassis. The company has produced over 3,200 ITVs for the US Army and the National Guard.
The TUA was designed to be compatible with a wide range of tracked and wheeled armoured fighting vehicles. In addition to the US Army's ITVs, the company has produced TUAs on the OTOBreda VCC-1 chassis for Saudi Arabia, 96 TUAs on the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) chassis for the US Marine Corps and 314 TUAs on the YPR-765 PRAT tracked vehicle for the Royal Netherlands Army. More than 4,000 TUA turrets have been delivered to date by Systems & Electronics Inc with production continuing. Delivery has started of over 100 systems on the LAV (8 x 8) chassis for Saudi Arabia. In 1996 Systems & Electronics received an order for 18 systems from Thailand. These are being delivered in 1997.
In addition to the fielded vehicles already mentioned, TUA has been successfully integrated on to several other vehicles including the Cadillac Gage Textron (now Textron Marine & Land Systems) LAV-300 (6 x 6), the OTOBreda C-13, the Talbot M-41E, the GKN Defence Simba (4 x 4) and the MOWAG Piranha (8 x 8).
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DESCRIPTION :
In addition to the two missile launching tubes, the elevating launcher includes the gunner's optics (TOW day sight and thermal night sight), a x4 magnification wide field of view and a x12 magnification target acquisition sight. TOW missile guidance is accomplished with the standard Missile Guidance Set (MGS) mounted inside the crew compartment. The elevated launcher interfaces with the vehicle using a standard M27 cupola, which makes it compatible with most US and allied armoured combat vehicles.
The TUA has fully powered 360� traverse movement with its `hammer head' having an elevation of +34� and depression of -30�. This enables the system to operate on gradients and side slopes with only the launcher head showing above the crest. When travelling, the launcher head is retracted on top of the vehicle hull making the vehicle difficult to distinguish from a standard AFV. It requires only 20 seconds for the launcher to be elevated and the target to be engaged. The time from first TOW missile impact to second round triggering with up to 12.5� target separation is 4.25 seconds. The protected gunner identifies and tracks the target with the sight's narrow field of view via the image transfer assembly. He can select either the day sight or night sight by remote control. The wide field of view allows the gunner to scan the terrain and locate targets. The guidance and sights of the TUA are identical to the standard TOW ground launcher system and, if required, these components can be removed from the vehicle and fitted to the ground TOW launcher tripod that is carried inside the vehicle. Once two TOW missiles have been fired the launcher head is depressed at the rear and two reload rounds are fitted. The loader is provided with side and overhead armour protection during the 40 second loading operation. In addition to the two ready to launch TOW missiles, a further 10 TOW rounds can be mounted inside the vehicle. For local defence, a 7.62 mm machine gun with 2,000 rounds of ammunition is mounted on the cupola.
