Going against tanks as an infantry unit is a tough spot. Tanks are significantly faster, more lethal, and harder to kill than any light-infantry unit. In a defense, light infantry uses engagement area development to attempt to even the odds. Engagement area development is similar to building a defense in depth. A quick summary:
0. Analyze the enemy composition and disposition to determine likely avenues of approach. After that, build your engagement areas on those approaches.
1. When the enemy is far away, attempt to disrupt or turn their movement into the engagement area. This is typically a combination of scouts, artillery, or obstacles to channel the enemy into the engagement area.
2. Once the enemy is in the engagement area, keep them there (fix) as long as possible. Use priority targets and sectors of fire to efficiently concentrate fires on the most valuable targets which almost certainly includes tanks.
3. Finally, you block the enemy with obstacles to move to secondary positions.
The author's first tactic of a trial shot of engaging at range is part of step 1. The goal is to force the enemy to change their movement, slow them down, or disable the active protection measures. This is a bit more difficult with a TOW missile than with a Javelin. Modern tanks will auto-rotate if you laser range find them directly. Since a tank round travels significantly faster than a TOW missile, a tank can kill you before the TOW missile reaches them. Since a TOW is guided by an operator via a wire, the missle with then miss.
The second tactic of multiple missiles would go in step 2. To avoid firing excessive missiles at targets, one technique is to "shard" the engagement area so subordinate units are responsible for parts of it.
The third tactic of using grenade launchers and mortars is questionable. We were taught that tanks are basically invulnerable to indirect fire (mortars and artillery). I don't think a 60mm mortar would have any significant effect on a tank unless you score a direct hit. The precision on indirect fire isn't good enough to directly hit a tank. Hoping to trigger the tank's active defense measure is a long shot. Also, if you're using a M320 grenade launcher with a max effective range of 320m against a tank, you're going to die soon unless you have some other significant advantage like urban terrain. The MK19 automatic grenade launcher is a much better weapon for trying to prematurely damage the tank's defense with a range of 1500m.
Going against tanks as an infantry unit is a tough spot. Tanks are significantly faster, more lethal, and harder to kill than any light-infantry unit. In a defense, light infantry uses engagement area development to attempt to even the odds. Engagement area development is similar to building a defense in depth. A quick summary:
0. Analyze the enemy composition and disposition to determine likely avenues of approach. After that, build your engagement areas on those approaches.
1. When the enemy is far away, attempt to disrupt or turn their movement into the engagement area. This is typically a combination of scouts, artillery, or obstacles to channel the enemy into the engagement area.
2. Once the enemy is in the engagement area, keep them there (fix) as long as possible. Use priority targets and sectors of fire to efficiently concentrate fires on the most valuable targets which almost certainly includes tanks.
3. Finally, you block the enemy with obstacles to move to secondary positions.
The author's first tactic of a trial shot of engaging at range is part of step 1. The goal is to force the enemy to change their movement, slow them down, or disable the active protection measures. This is a bit more difficult with a TOW missile than with a Javelin. Modern tanks will auto-rotate if you laser range find them directly. Since a tank round travels significantly faster than a TOW missile, a tank can kill you before the TOW missile reaches them. Since a TOW is guided by an operator via a wire, the missle with then miss.
The second tactic of multiple missiles would go in step 2. To avoid firing excessive missiles at targets, one technique is to "shard" the engagement area so subordinate units are responsible for parts of it.
The third tactic of using grenade launchers and mortars is questionable. We were taught that tanks are basically invulnerable to indirect fire (mortars and artillery). I don't think a 60mm mortar would have any significant effect on a tank unless you score a direct hit. The precision on indirect fire isn't good enough to directly hit a tank. Hoping to trigger the tank's active defense measure is a long shot. Also, if you're using a M320 grenade launcher with a max effective range of 320m against a tank, you're going to die soon unless you have some other significant advantage like urban terrain. The MK19 automatic grenade launcher is a much better weapon for trying to prematurely damage the tank's defense with a range of 1500m.