The Nation : Army Alters TOW Missile

The Army, anticipating the Soviet Union’s use of a new armor for its tanks, last month began producing a new type of TOW anti-tank missile, Maj. Phil Soucy, an Army spokesman, said. At a cost of $500 per missile, a small explosive charge has been added to the warhead of the TOW, Soucy said. Although many aspects of the program are still classified, the Army decided to release some details in part to respond to rising concerns expressed by U.S. and NATO defense experts. Soucy said the Army now expects to have 12,000 of the new TOW 2 missiles by the fall of 1989, with the first batch of the new missiles arriving in Europe later this summer.