Generally a good article over all, but you were far too generous towards the impact the Javelin had and towards its effectiveness at all. The main problem with the Javelin was that Ukraine already had ATGMs of its own in far larger numbers than the Javelin and which were far better than the Javelin in every way, such as the Soviet 9M113 Konkurs and 9K111 Fagot (Russian word for "Bassoon") and Ukraine's own Stugna-P, with the last of the three being the best performing ATGM in Ukrainian service by far. Not to mention all the shorter-ranged, dumb-fire rockets like RPG-7s that Ukraine had in spades for closer-ranged engagements that didn't require the launching soldier to expose himself long enough to get a lock. Thus, all of the faults of the Javelin become utterly indefensible considering that Ukraine already had stockpiles of better ATGMs and especially considering all the people who got killed because of the Javelin's faults:
Wali, a fellow Van Doo and sniper with combat experience in Afghanistan, was manoeuvring [sic] around to get a clean shot at one of the Russian iron monsters with an American-made Javelin anti-armour [sic] missile.
The tank had been tantalizingly out of reach before it turned on them and struck.
Wali, who was interviewed by CBC News in early March, wasn't prepared to give up even after the Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Shadow said that as Wali was looking for the best firing position, he knew they were outmatched.
"And I was like, bro, we need to get the hell out of here ... there's nothing we can do. We need to get out of here," he said.
They slipped away with the tank firing after them.
"So yeah, that was my last patrol on the eastern front," he said. "I have one word to describe [it], and it's just hell."
How this encounter happened is that the Javelin is actually limited to a range of 2.5km (the US Army claims that later versions have a range of up to 5km, but no evidence has ever surfaced to substantiate this claim), which is not only within range of any .50 caliber machine gun made since the interwar period of about ~3km which all tanks since the late '30s have had as a secondary or tertiary armament, but is also well within the effective detection range of even the oldest and crappiest of gen 1 thermal sights used by some older late-Soviet and early-Post Soviet tanks like the T-80UK. Thus, one has to get well within the effective range of a tank to get a lock on which only has an ~27.27% chance of hitting at all as recorded during late-stage training exercises in 2021 (Source: Infantry Brigade Combat Team Scout Platoon Anti-Armor Engagements at the Joint Readiness Training Center by CPT Christopher R. Brown (a publicly available document)) mostly due to guidance failures (unfortunately, I can't post the source I have for that as my source is leaked footage of Israeli Spike ATGMs suffering guidance failures with their very similar heat seeker that I can't post here, but DM me if you want them), let alone the usually less than spectacular effects of the Javelin usually just hitting the cannon barrel, tracks or exhaust port, with the last of the three being why Javelins were particularly ineffective against T-80s.
So, really, the fact that the Javelin managed to destroy a dozen or so tanks, IFVs, and APCs is not enough to save it from being a 1/10, especially since it got Ukrainian soldiers killed in engagements where other similar systems Ukraine already had wouldn't. While its true that the 9K111 ATGM is also limited to a range of 2.5km and is wire guided which comes with a whole slew of its own issues especially when mounted to a vehicle, its status as a tripod-mounted ATGM makes it far easier to conceal, so it can be easily fired from a building, trench, or bunker, where a tank is less likely to see it. Additionally, a 9K111 can be fired from effectively point-blank range at 70m, basically making it a guided RPG, while the Javelin has a minimum range of 500m due to the arc the missile flies on in both its top-attack and direct-fire modes, which precludes it from being viable in city fights where other short-ranged AT systems like RPGs and 9K111s dominate. Also, a 9K111 can be aimed at specific weakspots, thus making it far more lethal. And Konkurs and Stugna-P are even better with the former having a range of 4km and the latter having a range of 5-5.5km while being laser guided.
You miss the point - the endless supply of western wunderwaffen keep the war going, they keep Ukraine in the fight and the western public thinking that this time, this next escalation is the one that will do it.
The wonderwweapons do exactly what they were intended to do.
Generally a good article over all, but you were far too generous towards the impact the Javelin had and towards its effectiveness at all. The main problem with the Javelin was that Ukraine already had ATGMs of its own in far larger numbers than the Javelin and which were far better than the Javelin in every way, such as the Soviet 9M113 Konkurs and 9K111 Fagot (Russian word for "Bassoon") and Ukraine's own Stugna-P, with the last of the three being the best performing ATGM in Ukrainian service by far. Not to mention all the shorter-ranged, dumb-fire rockets like RPG-7s that Ukraine had in spades for closer-ranged engagements that didn't require the launching soldier to expose himself long enough to get a lock. Thus, all of the faults of the Javelin become utterly indefensible considering that Ukraine already had stockpiles of better ATGMs and especially considering all the people who got killed because of the Javelin's faults:
Wali, a fellow Van Doo and sniper with combat experience in Afghanistan, was manoeuvring [sic] around to get a clean shot at one of the Russian iron monsters with an American-made Javelin anti-armour [sic] missile.
The tank had been tantalizingly out of reach before it turned on them and struck.
Wali, who was interviewed by CBC News in early March, wasn't prepared to give up even after the Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Shadow said that as Wali was looking for the best firing position, he knew they were outmatched.
"And I was like, bro, we need to get the hell out of here ... there's nothing we can do. We need to get out of here," he said.
They slipped away with the tank firing after them.
"So yeah, that was my last patrol on the eastern front," he said. "I have one word to describe [it], and it's just hell."
From: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/ukraine-russia-canadian-forces-1.6443048
How this encounter happened is that the Javelin is actually limited to a range of 2.5km (the US Army claims that later versions have a range of up to 5km, but no evidence has ever surfaced to substantiate this claim), which is not only within range of any .50 caliber machine gun made since the interwar period of about ~3km which all tanks since the late '30s have had as a secondary or tertiary armament, but is also well within the effective detection range of even the oldest and crappiest of gen 1 thermal sights used by some older late-Soviet and early-Post Soviet tanks like the T-80UK. Thus, one has to get well within the effective range of a tank to get a lock on which only has an ~27.27% chance of hitting at all as recorded during late-stage training exercises in 2021 (Source: Infantry Brigade Combat Team Scout Platoon Anti-Armor Engagements at the Joint Readiness Training Center by CPT Christopher R. Brown (a publicly available document)) mostly due to guidance failures (unfortunately, I can't post the source I have for that as my source is leaked footage of Israeli Spike ATGMs suffering guidance failures with their very similar heat seeker that I can't post here, but DM me if you want them), let alone the usually less than spectacular effects of the Javelin usually just hitting the cannon barrel, tracks or exhaust port, with the last of the three being why Javelins were particularly ineffective against T-80s.
So, really, the fact that the Javelin managed to destroy a dozen or so tanks, IFVs, and APCs is not enough to save it from being a 1/10, especially since it got Ukrainian soldiers killed in engagements where other similar systems Ukraine already had wouldn't. While its true that the 9K111 ATGM is also limited to a range of 2.5km and is wire guided which comes with a whole slew of its own issues especially when mounted to a vehicle, its status as a tripod-mounted ATGM makes it far easier to conceal, so it can be easily fired from a building, trench, or bunker, where a tank is less likely to see it. Additionally, a 9K111 can be fired from effectively point-blank range at 70m, basically making it a guided RPG, while the Javelin has a minimum range of 500m due to the arc the missile flies on in both its top-attack and direct-fire modes, which precludes it from being viable in city fights where other short-ranged AT systems like RPGs and 9K111s dominate. Also, a 9K111 can be aimed at specific weakspots, thus making it far more lethal. And Konkurs and Stugna-P are even better with the former having a range of 4km and the latter having a range of 5-5.5km while being laser guided.
You miss the point - the endless supply of western wunderwaffen keep the war going, they keep Ukraine in the fight and the western public thinking that this time, this next escalation is the one that will do it.
The wonderwweapons do exactly what they were intended to do.