MBDA has fired an MMP missile from a remotely operated turret mounted on a 4×4 land-vehicle for the first time.
This demonstration was the third scenario of the MMP firing campaign carried out at the Canjuers military camp in the south of France, and took place with the support of the French army and of the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA – French Procurement Agency).
According to the MBDA website, “MMP is the latest (fifth) generation land combat missile system designed for dismounted infantry as well as for integration on combat vehicles. The weapons effectiveness has also been proven on small naval craft as well”.
Carried out in ‘fire and forget’ mode, the firing consisted of engaging a target representing another armoured vehicle located approximately 3,500 metres away.
Ending with a direct hit on the target, the firing confirmed the precision of the aiming and ‘locking-on’ for a long-range target from the turret, as well as the quality and robustness of the guidance chain.
MBDA said in a news release:
“This firing complements the development activities carried out by MBDA on MMP and the IMPACT remotely controlled turret for equipping light armoured vehicles. With MMP now the market benchmark for fifth-generation land combat missile systems, IMPACT meets the expectations of various industrial partners wishing to equip their vehicles with its full capabilities. MBDA has developed IMPACT’s modular architecture to aid integration. There is also commonality with the &-ç, with which it shares 80% of its components.”
Francis Bordachar, military advisor at MBDA, said:
“The development of a family of turrets simplifies integration, support and training activities for our Customers. With this success we are increasingly demonstrating the suitability of the MMP system for the different expectations of the armed forces. MBDA was able to demonstrate the ease of integration of MMP onto a light turret, as it also proved with the integration and qualification of MMP on Jaguar, which will be validated by a firing campaign at the beginning of this year.”
This would fit nicely on top of an Ares, giving it real punch.
Is that a 2 x twin MMP missile launcher with MPCV turret?
2 MMP + 1x 7.62mm
This then is an anti tank weapon. Clearly a lot of them could be fielded. How vulnerable are tanks to these weapons, in concert with air borne weapons and modern long range artillery and mortars?
Depends on whether the tank has any decent countermeasures. If not, its done for. The missile has a number of control modes from fire and forget to man in loop. It can do line of sight or top down attacks on MBTs. In the fire and forget mode it uses an imaging infrared (IIR) sensor to lock on to it target. It can also be guided to the target from the command unit by the operator via a fibre optic cable that streams behind the missile. Its tandem HEAT warhead is stated to be able to punch through a 1m of RHA. It can be considered equivalent to the Israeli Spike ATGM.
A passive countermeasure such as smoke, may disturb the line of sight from the operator and shield it from the missile’s IIR sensor. If the tank has a decent active protection system like Trophy it has a better than even chance of intercepting the missile.
Well pretty much every European country bar France got a Spike variant, this is France going it their own way like if they are rich. Prob is that to cover the Israeli missile line they need to get from 1km to 30km range variants. I doubt it will happen.