French missile specialist MBDA announced it has fired the MMP missile from a remotely operated turret mounted on a 4×4 land-vehicle for the first time.
The latest milestone announced by the company follows two more “firsts” achieved by the Missile Moyenne Portée (MMP) in a little over a month.
In December last year, the MMP launched for the first time from an ARQUUS Sabre special forces vehicle. Less than a week ago, the missile was part of a beyond line sight (BLOS) engagement capability test, which saw a drone guide the MMP to its target.
The latest 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 the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA – French Procurement Agency).
Carried out in “fire and forget” mode, the firing consisted of engaging a target representing another armored vehicle located approximately 3,500 meters 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, MBDA said.
This firing complements the development activities carried out by MBDA on MMP and the IMPACT remotely controlled turret for equipping light armored vehicles. While the IMPACT turret is tailored for the MMP, MBDA says the turret shares 80% of its components with the Mistral ATLAS RC turret.
“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,” Francis Bordachar, military advisor at MBDA, said.
