It is a very cool weapons system. A missile that does not need to be guided to the target and can attack the more lightly armored top of tanks. Basically a fire-and-forget system. Both are huge advances compared to older weapons systems.
To review those briefly from an American perspective: There was the Bazooka from World War II. It was a rocket-propelled armor-piercing charge. Not very effective against the later-version German tanks, at least for their frontal armor.
That was followed by recoilless rifles that were basically an “up gunned” Bazooka. This included the very portable and one-time-use M72 LAW. Not my idea of a tank killer, but good against lightly armored vehicles or bunkers.
The next big advancement came around 1973. I know because I was involved in the Operational Test III for the Dragon anti-tank missile. I trained infantrymen on how to use the system and then led a platoon during the actual OTIII. It was a big advancement over recoilless rifles in several ways, especially range. Yet, the missile was wire guided and the person firing the weapon had to keep their sights on the target to guide the missile into impact. That might be hard to do with bullets whizzing by you and artillery fire impacting your position.
As described above, the Javelin is another huge leap forward in that fire-and-forget aspect and attacking the more lightly armored portions of the tank.
Last war story: We had to perform different military maneuvers as part of the OTIII test. One was “the delay,” which means you shoot and scoot. Even with a range of around 1,000 meters, firing the Dragon and then getting back to your armored personnel carrier and “escaping” while tanks are advancing — and we had real tanks coming after us — is not an easy task. The word “overrun” comes to mind.
