Television guidance

Television guidance (TGM) is a type of missile guidance system using a television camera in the missile or glide bomb that sends its signal back to the launch platform. There, a weapons officer or bomb aimer watches the image on a television screen and sends corrections to the missile, typically over a radio control link. Television guidance is not a seeker because it is not automated, although semi-automated systems with autopilots to smooth out the motion are known. They should not be confused with contrast seekers, which also use a television camera but are true automated seeker systems.

The concept was first explored by the Germans during World War II as an anti-shipping weapon that would keep the launch aircraft safely out of range of the target's anti-aircraft guns. The best developed example was the Henschel Hs 293. The US also experimented with similar weapons during the war, notably the GB-4 and TRD-1. Only small numbers were used experimentally and with poor results. One of the first TV guided weapons to see widespread service was the Anglo-French Martel missile, which came in radar-seeking and TV guided versions. The US AGM-62 Walleye is a similar system attached to an unpowered bomb, the Soviet Kh-29 is similar.

Television guidance was never widely used, as the introduction of laser guided bombs and GPS weapons have generally replaced them. However, they remain useful when certain approaches or additional accuracy are needed. One famous use was the attack on the Sea Island oil platform during the Gulf War, which required pinpoint accuracy.

The first concerted effort to build a television guided bomb took place in Germany under the direction of Herbert Wagner at the Henschel aircraft company starting in 1940. This was one of a number of efforts to provide guidance for the ongoing Hs 293 glide bomb project. The Hs 293 had originally been designed as a purely MCLOS system in which flares on the tail of the bomb were observed by the bomb aimer and the Kehl-Strassburg radio command set was used to align it with the target. The disadvantage of this approach is that the aircraft had to fly in such a way to allow the bomb aimer to view the bomb and target throughout the attack, which, given the cramped conditions of WWII bombers, significantly limited the directions the aircraft could fly. Any weather, smoke screens or even the problems of viewing the target at long range made the attack difficult.

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