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Russia’s anti-tank missile system gets ‘top attack’ capability similar to US Javelin

As its specific feature, a Javelin missile climbs above using an arched flight trajectory and then strikes down the turrets of tanks and other armored vehicles where the armor is the thinnest
Kornet anti-tank missile system  Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS
Kornet anti-tank missile system
© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

KUBINKA /Moscow Region/, August 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Kornet anti-tank missile system has been fitted with the ‘top attack’ capability to strike the armor from the above like the US FGM-148 Javelin weapon, High Precision Systems (the Kornet’s developer) said at the Army-2018 international military and technical forum on Friday.

"Already now, given its skillful use, when it is fired above the sight line, the Kornet anti-tank missile system allows attacking the target’s upper semi-sphere," the company said, responding to a question about whether the Kornet would get the ‘top attack’ mode like the Javelin.

The Javelin portable anti-tank weapon went into service with the US Army in 1996. As its specific feature, a Javelin missile climbs above using an arched flight trajectory and then strikes down the turrets of tanks and other armored vehicles where the armor is the thinnest. This technology also allows skirting the area of armored vehicles’ active defense systems designated to strike attack weapons.

High Precision Systems has developed the Kornet anti-tank missile system that is capable of hitting armored targets at a distance of up to 10 km. According to open sources, a munition is capable of piercing over 1m homogeneous armor. The Kornet-M version is currently operational in the Russian Army.