MMP missiles for the French Army [ES2016D3]

[Vergennes]

The MBDA Missile Moyenne Portée (MMP) (medium-range missile) will complete its formal DGA qualification trials at Bourges towards the end of 2016.

Ahead of the formal qualification MBDA has launched the equipment serial production so that delivery can start in mid-2017 with an operational capability the same year.

The French Army has ordered 400 MMP firing posts and 2,850 missiles under a contract placed in December 2013, as replacement for the currently deployed MBDA MILAN (maximum range 2,000m), Lockheed Martin/Raytheon Javelin (2,500m) and MBDA HOT (4,000m) anti-tank guided weapons.

When compared with the MILAN, the MMP has an all-weather capability and a longer range of up to 4,000m. It also has a more effective tandem high-explosive anti-tank warhead that will penetrate more than 1,000mm of steel armour, as well as having a fragmentation effect, to neutralise targets fitted with explosive reactive armour. The warhead and solid propellant rocket motor are insensitive munition-compliant, which is becoming a mandated requirement by many users.

It can also be fired from an enclosed space and has two modes of operation, high and low trajectory, with the high mode being used to attack the more vulnerable upper surfaces of an armoured fighting vehicle.

The standard man-portable MMP consists of the tripod launcher and its associated day/ night sighting system and the missile in its disposable launch container. The MMP will also be integrated into the two-person turret installed on the French Army’s future Jaguar (6x6) reconnaissance vehicle under a separate DGA contract awarded in December 2014.

http://www.janes.com/article/61385/medium-range-missile-for-french-army-es2016d3