In 1989, the US Army awarded a contract for the development of Javelin as a replacement for the M47 Dragon antitank missile. The JAVELIN Joint Venture was formed by Texas Instruments (now Raytheon Electronic Systems) of Dallas, Texas and Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles (now Missiles and Fire Control), of Orlando, Florida.

Javelin entered full-rate production in 1994 and the systems were first deployed in June 1996 by the US Army at Fort Benning, Georgia. Over 9000 missiles have been produced with production contracts due to last until 2005. The Javelin system has been cleared by the US Department of Defense for Foreign Military Sales.

Javelin has been chosen by the Netherlands (240 systems are required) and by Spain (12 systems).

The Javelin system consists of the Command Launch Unit (CLU) and the round. The CLU, with a carry weight of 6.4 kg, incorporates a passive target acquisition and fire control unit with an integrated day sight and a thermal imaging sight. The gunner's controls for the missile system are on the CLU. The day sight is equipped with x 4 magnification and the night sight with x 4 and x 9 magnification optics.

The round consists of the Javelin missile and the Alliant Techsystems Launch Tube Assembly. The range of the missile is 2500 m. Javelin is a fire-and-forget missile with lock-on before launch and automatic self-guidance. The missile is equipped with an imaging infra-red seeker which is based on a cadmium mercury telluride (CdHgTe) 64 x 64 staring focal plane array in the 8 to 12 micron waveband. The tandem warhead is fitted with two shaped charges: a precursor warhead to initiate explosive reactive armour and a main warhead to penetrate base armour. The propulsion system is a two stage solid propellant design which provides a minimum smoke soft launch.

The system is deployed and ready to fire in less than 30 seconds and the reload time is less than 20 seconds. The missile is mounted on the Command Launch Unit and the gunner engages the target using the sight on the CLU, by placing a curser box over the image of the target. The gunner locks on the automatic target tracker in the missile by sending a lock-on-before-launch command to the missile. When the system is locked-on, the missile is ready to fire and the gunner does not carry out post launch tracking or missile guidance. Unlike conventional wire guided, fibre-optic cable guided, or laser beam riding missiles, Javelin is autonomously guided to the target after launch, leaving the gunner free to reposition or reload immediately after launch.

A soft launch ejects the missile from the launch tube to give a low-recoil shoulder launch. The soft launch enables firing from inside buildings or covered positions. Once the missile is clear, the larger propellant in the second stage is ignited and the missile is propelled towards the target. The weapon has two attack modes, direct or top attack. The gunner selects direct attack mode to engage covered targets, bunkers, buildings and helicopters. The top attack mode is selected against tanks, in which case the Javelin climbs above and strikes down on the target to penetrate the roof of the tank where there is the least armour protection. The missile is launched at an 18 degree elevation angle to reach a peak altitude of 150 m in top attack mode and 50 m in direct fire mode.