there does not seem to be an abundance of tv guided weapons around, weapon for weapon they must be pretty low….in the book
NATO Air-Launched Weapons by Jeremy Flack
there are 10 TV guided air to surface weapons listed, and out of a total of 108 munitions thats about 9% I am aware of the fact that other tv guided weapons may/have existed but this is just on terms of this source alone.
so perhaps they have never been very popular….why?
-they may require a higher workload in the cockpit for the crew
-they are quite likley to be more expensive to use(unit cost) and build
-perhaps they are not as reliable as other types of seeker equipped munitions?
-you cant hand them off to be targetted from other sources such as FAC (or at least not that i know of).
the actual seekers themselves allow the weapon to be pointed at a specific target thats all really, theres not much point in having them gimballed because a great amount, because the further you pan the camera the harder it is to makethe missile get to that target.
todays on board seekers can lock onto a point as designated by the crewperson in such a way that it can give you the geographical coordinates of the point it is locked onto if the seeker is connected (or at least fed) the nav data from the aircraft.
if you are in control of the missile you can track the missile to the point of impact. this may make TV guided weapons more useful than you think, as an IR/radar seeker may, for example loose a lock on a vehicle if it goes under a bridge whereas the operator can steer a tv guided munition towards where the target may emerge…getting the best from the weapon.
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