Top-attack
Weapon designed to attack armoured vehicles from above
title: "Top-attack" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["anti-tank-weapons"] description: "Weapon designed to attack armoured vehicles from above" topic_path: "general/anti-tank-weapons" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-attack" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Weapon designed to attack armoured vehicles from above ::
A top attack weapon is designed to attack armored vehicles from above, to take advantage of the fact that the armour is usually thinnest on the top of an armoured vehicle. The device may be delivered as a smart submunition or a primary munition by an anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), mortar bomb, artillery shell, or even an emplaced munition such as a mine. Top attack munitions use either a shaped charge warhead (often now tandem warheads in order to defeat ERA), or an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) warhead fired while over the target (usually by submunition).
The top attack concept was first put into service by the Swedish Armed Forces in 1988 with the Bofors RBS 56 BILL top-attack anti-tank missile. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/UA_soldiers_NLAW_training_03.jpg" caption="[[Ukrainian army]] soldiers fire the [[NLAW]] in training."] ::
Another method of top attack is the overfly top-attack (OTA or OFTA) where a missile with a vertically oriented shaped charge jet that fires downwards. A missile is directed to overfly the vehicle where a sensor detects the vehicle, and detonates the shape charge down into the top of the vehicle. This is system employed with the NLAW man-portable ATGM. TOC
Weapon systems using top attack
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/An_Australian_soldier_carrying_two_Javelin_missiles_to_a_firing_point_at_the_Besmaya_Range_Complex,_Iraq,_in_October_2016.jpg" caption="An [[Australian Army]] soldier carrying two [[FGM-148 Javelin]]s at the [[Besmaya Range Complex]] in [[Iraq]], October 2016"] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Hires_090509-A-4842R-001a.jpg" caption="An M41 tripod-mounted TOW ITAS-FTL with PADS (a variant of the [[BGM-71 TOW]]) of the U.S. Army in [[Kunar Province]], Afghanistan, May 2009"] ::
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Smart155_phase6.svg" caption="The firing phase of a SMArt 155 submunition. The submunition is held aloft by a parachute, while the submunition seeks a target and fires"] ::
Notable weapon systems that utilize top attack include: -- entries must have their own Wikipedia article (or be a variant thereof) to be considered "notable"
::data[format=table] | Weapon system | Type|| Country of origin | |---|---| | AGM-114 Hellfire | air-to-ground ATGM | | AT-1K Raybolt | man-portable ATGM | | BGM-71F/TOW-2B | ATGM | | Bofors/Nexter Bonus | artillery shell submunition | | BLU-108 | aerial bomb | | CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon | aerial Cluster bomb | | FGM-148 Javelin | man-portable ATGM | | Griffin LGB | Laser-guided bomb (kit) | | HJ-12 | man-portable ATGM | | Kitolov-2M | Mortar & Artillery | | KM-8 Gran | mortar | | Krasnopol | artillery | | KSTAM | gun-launched guided projectile | | LAHAT | semi-active laser ATGM | | M93 Hornet mine | anti-vehicle wide-area mine | | Mokopa | air-to-ground ATGM | | MPATGM | man-portable ATGM | | Nag | ATGM | | NLAW | overfly top-attack ATGM | | OMTAS | man-portable ATGM | | PARS 3 LR | air-to-ground ATGM | | RBS 56 BILL / RBS 56B BILL 2 | man-portable ATGM | | SADARM | submunition | | SMArt 155 | artillery shell submunition | | Spike | ATGM | | Strix mortar round | guided mortar bomb | | Toophan 3M | SACLOS ATGM | | Type 01 LMAT | man-portable ATGM | | XM395 Precision Guided Mortar Munition | guided mortar bomb | ::
References
References
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::