Army improves circuit cards for anti-tank missiles

Engineers at the U.S. Army Tobyhanna Army Depot in Tobyhanna, Pa., are building 200 multilayer circuit cars for the tube Launched, Optically Tracked, Wire Command-Link Guided missile system — better known as TOW. The story is a familiar one — product obsolescence. "One of the components on the old board was obsolete," says Tobyhanna engineer Bruce Imel. Army leaders "wanted us to redesign the board with the replacement component, but more components were located in the supply system." Not only did Tobyhanna engineers locate and install the necessary components, but they also improved parts of the boards. For example, they found that a trace line was missing in the original photo master pattern, Army officials say. — J.K