M901 ITV

Peakaboo, Mudafuka!

"Fair fights are for suckers."

– The Mighty Jingles

The M901 ITV (Improved TOW Vehicle, yes it has an acronym in its initialization) is one of the many, many combat systems derived from the M113 armored personnel carrier. Instead of carrying troops, the M901 is a dedicated anti-tank platform, mounting a pair of TOW (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided) missile launchers in its distinctive "Hammer Head" turret. This turret allows the M901 to hide behind cover, only exposing the missile launcher to enemy fire. This innovative design, when coupled with the firepower of the TOW, makes the M901 a major threat to enemy armor.

In Team Yankee

The Stat Card

The M901 is a pretty sweet Tank Hunter. The Improved TOW Missile can smack foes with AT 21, Firepower 3+, up to 4 feet away. The Tow has the Guided and HEAT rules, so you ignore the penalties for shooting at things beyond 16 inches. There is also the Hammerhead rule as an added bonus, which means that you can fire the missile and still be Gone to Ground. However, it cannot engage targets within 8 inches. Aside from the TOW, the ITV is also armed with a .30cal AA machine gun (somewhere).

As for defense, the M901 has the standard armor of the M113 chassis, so don't take on any dedicated anti-armor weapons.

This thing is a Sniper, pure and simple. Park it somewhere with concealment and pop tanks from 2/3rds of the board away. If the opponent gets too close, pack up shop and dash the heck away, as you can't shoot the TOW if you move.

You can have any section size you want, so long as it's 2 ITVs, which will cost you 3 points. The M901 ITV can be taken by US Armies.

The New American book for TYV2 gives the almost mandatory option (the TOW tax) to upgrade your entire force to carry AT23 TOW2s.

IRL

What page was the Litany of Stealth on again?.

Originally the US military wanted nothing to do with guided missile carriers, but after the Yom Kippur War proved their viability, the US Army put out a contract for a vehicle that could deliver guided destruction to an enemy vehicle face. The M901 was the result of that contract, and a little over 3000 of them were built in the short time that it was in production. The M901 was used in Operation Desert Storm where it knocked out 14 Iraqi fighting vehicles. However the M901 ITV is an inherently defensive vehicle because of its light armor and inability to fire on the move. While these were not major problems against an expected Soviet armored offensive these drawbacks mean it has since been phased out of US service and replaced by the M2 and M3 Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicles, which also carry the same TOW missile alongside an autocannon, just with only half much ammo for the missile launchers as the M901 carried.

In US service, the M901 ITV was organized into anti-tank companies and attached to Mechanized Battalions. The three platoons of ITVs in the company would then be further divided into sections and attached to the Mechanized infantry platoons with roughly a two vehicle section of M901s per platoon. They were also employed in the scout platoon of Armored Cavalry regiments, with the platoon being made up of 3 M901 ITVs and 3 M113s.

The M901 remains in service among several militaries around the world, with nations such as Greece and Morocco.

The M901s remaining in US inventory since 2005 were given to the Iraqis as military aid. The M901 was always despised in US service, because they were not especially well built and prone to constant failures of the sensor and fire control electronics and of the hydraulics of the pop-up missile launch tubes. They were regarded as a good idea badly executed and unreliable in the extreme.