The production ramp-up for Enforcer missiles – Enforcer Production Increase Campaign (EPIC) – has been proposed for funding within the European Commission’s ASAP programme.

The EPIC project aims to increase Enforcer production significantly and thus will contribute to the further enlargement of the series production of Enforcer missiles at MBDA in Schrobenhausen/Germany and at MBDA partner companies in Europe.

Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, declared:

“The ASAP EPIC project is a great opportunity to ramp up the Enforcer missile production, while making it more resilient and faster. Series production of the Enforcer is now well under way and the first deliveries to the German Armed Forces will follow this year. Also an export contract has been concluded. We are increasing the production of Enforcer missiles to meet customer demand for the years to come.”

MBDA, as the European market leader for missile systems, is investing heavily in its production capacities all over Europe.

ASAP EPIC makes a decisive contribution here and contributes significantly to European resilience and the sovereignty of our customers, their armed forces and their allies.

According to MBDA:

“The portable, shoulder-launched, lightweight, high-precision Enforcer is a fire-and-forget missile system with an operational range up to 2,000m. Due to its low weight, day and night passive operation and enclosed space firing capability, Enforcer provides a significant capability enhancement in mobile ground operations. With its unique features the Enforcer provides precision effects capabilities against the threat from lightly armoured static and moving targets, targets behind cover, and against targets at long range also in urban environments. The modular design of the Enforcer system enables a range of future development options, including a ‘family’ of Enforcer munitions for land, air and sea applications.”

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5 COMMENTS

  1. I first read about the Enforcer a few years ago and it is one of a proposed family of weapons , but it must be made clear , that the version above is not an anti-tank weapon. I quote from an European Defence review article on the Enforcer from last OCT:
    MBDA Germany Enforcer lightweight missile is ready for production and to generate new variants

    The Enforcer is one of the few shoulder-launched missiles, as most use a bipod or tripod, its mass at launch being less than 7 kg and less than 1 metre long. It takes to the target a multi-effect warhead, developed by the Schrobenhausen-based TDW, an MBDA subsidiary, at over 2,000 metres, the Bundeswehr requirement being 1,800 metres. The warhead features an explosively-formed penetrator (EFP) element, to deal with light armoured vehicles, a forward fragmentation effect, and a side fragmentation effect provided by the warhead structure. The mode is selected by the operator prior to the launch according to the type of target, the fuse mode depending on the effect, three modes being available, point detonation, delayed or time for airburst effect. The Enforcer, in the available version that will be soon delivered to the Bundeswehr, is not an antitank weapon, the 90 mm calibre (in fact the missile diameter is 89 mm) warhead being designed for other types of targets. The operator can also select the sensor that will lock on the target and guide the missile towards it, two options being available, an imaging infra-red and a TV. Once selected the desired effect the gunner puts the crosshair on the target, selects the sensor to be used, locks the missile onto it and squeezes the trigger. He can then immediately change position as the Enforcer is a fire-and-forget weapon. The seeker correlates the image with that acquired initially, the contrast correlation tracker having a refresh rate of 25 frames per second, hence even if the light changes or the target moves under different conditions the tracker continues to guide the Enforcer missile towards the intended objective.

     

    The Enforcer development story is however far from being concluded. For the time being the Enforcer-X is a concept, but the antitank version of the MBDA lightweight missile might become reality as soon as a launch customer will materialise. It will feature maximum commonality with the original missile, the main exception being the warhead, TDW providing a tandem shaped charge warhead purposely made to penetrate tank armour behind ERA. Due to the type of warhead the airburst mode will not be present, the other main feature being the availability of two attack modes, with a direct trajectory or with a lofted one, the latter allowing attacking the target from the top. This will lead to some changes in the missile programming and therefore in the menu available to the shooter, the system range remaining at 2 km.

     

    A third evolution of the Enforcer is the Small AntiDrone Missile, SADM in short. A first impression of that version was shown at ILA 2022, a nine-missile launcher being installed on top a Boxer fitted with a Rheinmetall Skyranger 30 turret. This solution is proposed as the answer to Capability 1 ground based air defence needs, the one aiming at countering Class 1 UAS, that is unmanned airframes with a mass under 150 kg, which is currently not covered by existing systems in service with the German Armed Forces. Such a solution allows to select the effector according to the threat, with the SADM capable to cope with targets at distances over 2 km and under 5-6 km, while for shorter ranges the effector of choice is the 30 mm cannon.

  2. It comes along the Akeron, Milan, Nlaw, Eryx tow, Hellfire, Spikes…
    Well, it is good to have more modern equipments produced. But so many R&D dupplicate… Imagine just 2 teams doing it… we could have far larger stockpiles.

    • It does seem like reinventing the wheel. LMM is what came to mind looking at this, as it appears to have a similar target set. However, LMM is much longer ranged, much faster and is useful against fast targets, although it would be nice if it could be fire and forget.
      AA

      • For the Stormer/RapidRanger end of LMM’s use, would radio command guidance work?
        Looking at videos of tests, both LMM and StarStreak waste energy trying to stay on the straight beam line between the launcher and target. Having command guidance would mean that the missile had longer range as it could follow a ballistic arc and lead crossing targets.

        • Just possibly, as I don’t know, they might just do that for targets at their maximum range, however this might be limited by having to stay within the illuminator bracket?
          The laser system as I understand it, is virtually unjammable, and the lasers are very low power in order not to trigger laser detectors. No doubt someone will correct me on that.
          I would love to see Martlet launchers on our vessels to counter smaller targets, and up the missile count on the ships. A launcher something like the decoy dispenser shown recently would add 24 missiles to any ships inventory. Would a launcher like this be more manpower intensive than having a 40mm bofors?
          AA

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