Well you know the Javelin should only be put into the category of the Metis-M1 since they have similar ranges, the Kornet should be compared to the TOW-2B(A) Sure during this conflict it is cheaper to use weapons like Konkurs (AT-4Cs) but if that's on hand you use that.
Dragging it back to topic, the Javelin is not affordable by any faction in Syria except terrorist forces (who don't really pay for it) or the US special forces.
In this case the Javelin is ideal for the role of hitting incoming IEDs, but only if the US is paying for it. In terms of a weapon system it is very much a compromised design that is at its best taking out moving vehicle targets... especially in the ambush situation.
In fact the biggest negative of the system is that it is pretty much ideal for the terrorists, so having it there risks them capturing them and making use of them against friendly forces.
It uses thermal imagers in the launcher and the missile itself to try to keep the user safe by allowing a fire and forget operation so the user can bug out as soon as they fire... much like an unguided RPG over much shorter ranges.
A much heavier system offers the same operational safety by putting 6+km between the operator and target and a much higher flight speed.
I appreciate what you are saying and if they replaced the Thermal Imager seeker with a CCD chip like a cheap video camera that was sensitive in IR wavelengths and visible light wavelengths and put a simple computer on board with image processing software like you get in modern phones you could have a fire and forget missile with much better performance at a fraction of the cost... which is what I suspect the Russians are working on at the moment.
I rather suspect their next ATGM will be a diving top attack missile much like Javelin but with a much cheaper sensor that may use a drone to help find targets.
Whether it uses a datalink or just software to find its target will be interesting.
What I am saying is that Javelin would be very useful if it was much cheaper and able to detect and lock a wider range of targets.
Russian TV guided missiles like Kh-29 can be locked onto a vehicle or other point target but where a target is too well camouflaged it could also be locked on to an empty space in relation to the things around it... that level of technology should allow a specific window in a building to be targeted or a tree or log bunker.
We can't simply compare these weapons by what's in service or not, you should compare them to their counterparts based on the range and class of the weapon. The Milan missed in the video, and the Javelin hit. Saved a lot of lives. Sure a Metis-M1 could have shredded it as well but so could the Milan.
Well that raises the question... what should they be using. In afghanistan the Soviets used SPG-9 recoilless rifles and ZU-23 light cannon. It seems the terrorists are armouring their VIEDs so PKs and SVDs are not good enough.
Personally I think Metis would be the best option... of course along with mines and other countermeasures... but then even a BRDM-2 with a 14.5mm HMG in a stabilised mount and night optics, but it depends on how much you want to spend and of course it has to be manned by competant users who know what they are doing and wont panic... to be honest I can't say what I might do in that sort of situation...
but it's also pretty good at what it does. In conventional roles it's even better... Top attack on that weapon negates any armor on any tank or armored vehicle. So of course it's not a godly weapon but it offers many capabilities to the user, or formation it's being used in.
But that is the point... a widely deployed short/medium range man portable ATGM should be more than just a top attack weapon against armoured targets too heavily protected for standard ATGMs to penetrate from the front. The vast majority of the time it wont be used against any sort of enemy armour... cars, trucks, buses, MG positions, sniper positions, just plain enemy firing positions, any group of enemy troops.
For attacking that Abrams or T-90 in a built up area it is ideal for everything else it is SACLOS or expensive over kill.
Using a Metis-M1 instead would result in very much the same results most of the time except you can use dozens of them because you can afford hundreds instead of dozens.
To be honest I am very surprised the Milan missed... is there any information about who was at the controls?
In terms of performance of course the fire and forget mode of Javelin would be good for semi trained users... making good results easier to achieve assuming they don't break them. I would suspect a special forces operator with Milan would have as good a kill rate as any operator of Javelin.
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i thought this topic was about "Syrian civil war news" not on on Javelin and Metis but maybe i am wrong 
