HOT entered limited production in 1976, with mass production of 800 missiles a month reached in 1978. HOT initially became operational with the German and French armies fitted to specialized armored antitank vehicles. In addition, Euromissile was in the enviable position of having large export orders from Middle East nations at the start of mass production. This was likely due to the situation in the late 1970s where many nations did not want to rely solely on arms purchases from the Soviets combined with the U.S. Congress restrictions on the export sales of the TOW antitank missile.