MBDA offers co-dev on 5th Gen anti-tank missile

The MBDA Missile Moyenne Portée at Aero India 2015 | Photo: StratPost

French arms company MBDA has offered it’s new MMP fifth generation Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) as a base platform for co-development to India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

MBDA already supplies the Milan wire-guided ATGM system to the Indian Army.

MMP, which stands for Missile Moyenne Portée, or Medium Range Missile, is a new development for the French Army and has only been test-fired for the first time, earlier this month.

The offer to co-develop MMP, which was displayed at Aero India 2105, appears to be in competition to a proposal on the US-India Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) table to co-develop an advanced version of the Javelin ATGM, manufactured by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

India also placed on order for the Israeli Rafael Spike ATGM system last October.

In comparison to the Milan 2T operated by the Indian Army, of which 4,100 were ordered in 2009, the MMP anti-tank missile system has a longer range of four kilometers and differs significantly in that it is not a wire-guided system.

According to MBDA officials who spoke to StratPost, the MMP has an uncooled infra red seeker and three operating modes: fire-and-forget, man -in-the-loop with fibre optic data link and lock-on-after-launch, wherein a third party can designate the target.

MBDA’s other proposal for co-development to DRDO, for the Maitri Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM) system has been in a coma for several years now, especially with the development and orders for the indigenous Akash SRSAM system.

At the same time, India also has an ongoing tender being contested for SRSAM systems, for which trials are currently underway and the next stage of which will be held in Israel.