A top attack weapon is designed to attack armoured vehicles from above as a form of plunging fire, as the armour is usually thinnest on the top of the vehicle. Ideally, it will penetrate perpendicular to the attacked surface. The device may be delivered (often as a submunition) by an anti-tank guided missile, mortar or artillery shell, or even an emplaced munition such as a mine. Top attack munitions use either a high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead for direct impact or near impact, or an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) warhead for over-flight of the target.
The top attack concept is fairly new and was first put into service by the Swedish in 1988[1] with the Bofors RBS 56 BILL top-attack anti-tank missile.
Weapon systems using top attack
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An Australian Army soldier carrying two FGM-148 Javelin top attack missiles at the Besmaya Range Complex in Iraq, October 2016
- AGM-114 Hellfire (U.S.)
- Mokopa (South Africa)
- BGM-71F/TOW-2B (U.S.)
- BLU-108 (U.S.)
- CBU-97 (U.S.)
- PARS 3 LR (Germany)
- FGM-148 Javelin (U.S.)
- KSTAM (South Korea)
- M93 HORNET mine (U.S.)
- MBT LAW (Sweden)
- Nag (India)
- MPATGM (India)
- SADARM (U.S.)
- Spike (Israel)
- OMTAS (Turkey)
- Griffin LGB (Israel)
- SMArt 155 (Germany)
- HJ-12 (China)
- Type 01 LMAT (Japan)
- RBS 56 BILL (Sweden)
- RBS 56B BILL 2 (Sweden)
- Strix mortar round (Sweden)
- XM395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition (U.S.)
- Krasnopol (weapon system) (Russian Federation)
- Kitolov-2M (Russian Federation)
- KM-8 Gran (Russian Federation)
- Prospina (India)
- Raybolt (South Korea)
- Toophan 3M (Iran)
- Toophan-7 (Iran)
Sources
- ^ "RBS 56 BILL". robotmuseum.