They seem to work quite effectively, I've never seen a TOW fail. Downside is you need to maintain visual guidance of the missile through it's whole flight path.

While I don't doubt you, I will say that, technically, I've never seen a TOW fail either.

I'm envision that classic "look down and see a spool of rope unspooling around your leg right before you disappear out of frame" shtick.

Anyone involved in RC aircraft will gladly tell you that getting a stable radio link for video and control past 4km is anything but simple.

Even a basic analog video signal is orders of magnitude more data than what you'd be transmitting in a phone call.

Luckily, I am involved in RC aircraft. If my 5mm, $15 ELRS receiver can do 13 km without breaking a sweat, imagine what military-grade technology can do.

TOW missiles date back to 60s-70s, so I don't think they had access to tech that good at the time; for more modern efforts the Javelin (from the 90s) has equivalent range and no wires.

That makes sense, thanks. Isn't the Javelin unguided (or self-guided), though? This means it doesn't need wires not because communication with it is wireless, but because it doesn't need to communicate at all.

ah, true, I was misremembering how it did work, I though there was some guidance done by the shooter after the missile had been fired.