First successful firing for MBDA MMP Medium Range Missile by French Army Defence Procurement

 
Defense industry military technology - MBDA MMP
 
 
First successful firing for MBDA MMP Medium Range Missile by French Army Defence Procurement.
The French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l'Armement) successfully carried out the first firing of MMP (Missile de Moyenne Portée or Medium Range Missile), the successor to the Milan weapon system.
     
The French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l'Armement) successfully carried out the first firing of MMP (Missile de Moyenne Portée or Medium Range Missile), the successor to the Milan weapon system. MMP is man portable (the missile in its tube weighs only 15kg), easy to set up and operate by a two-man team.
     
Carried out at the DGA Techniques Terrestres site in Bourges (central France), the firing test served to confirm MMP's excellent accuracy in locking onto a target at a distance of more than 4,000m and that was hidden from view at launch. This success is the result of the coordinated efforts of both state (DGA and French Army) and industrial (MBDA France) participants.

MMP is a high technology, new generation missile forming one of the French MoD's new programmes within the Military Planning Act 2014-2019 aimed at modernising the French Army.

MMP is man portable (the missile in its tube weighs only 15kg), easy to set up and operate by a two-man team. It is the ideal combat support weapon for the modern soldier who might be called upon to fight either out in the open battlefield or from confined spaces within a complex urban environment. The system can be used either in conjunction with a lightweight, portable digital firing post (weighing only 11kgs, battery included) or alternatively, mounted on a typical armoured vehicle. Its shaped tandem warhead (MMP features a unique selectable charge depending on the intended target) provides lethality at ranges of up to 4km against a wide range of stationary or moving ground targets from bunkers and machine gun posts to tanks equipped with the latest explosive reactive armour (ERA).

This versatile missile, conceived by MBDA France, is currently in its development phase following the notification of a development contract by the DGA on 3rd December 2013. It will enable the armed forces to neutralise, with a high level of precision, the many different types of target that might be confronted during operations, ensuring that collateral damage is kept to a minimum and at the same time maximizing the safety of the operator. The delivery date of the system to the French Army is scheduled for 2017.

Further test firings have already been programmed by the DGA Techniques Terrestres to take place during the first quarter of 2015.