European missiles manufacturer MBDA has delivered its 1000th Missile Moyenne Portée’s (MMP) medium range missile to the French Service Interarmées des Munitions (SIMu).
The delivery was made on 16 November following authorisation from France’s defence procurement agency, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA). The missile was part of a batch handed over to SIMu.
According to the Loi de Programmation Militaire, a total of 1,950 missiles are scheduled to be delivered by 2025.
The MMP has been used by the French armed forces since 2017. It has also been used in Belgium and Sweden.
The missile is the only fifth generation anti-tank missile in production and service today.
The MMP features a portable and lightweight firing station. It can engage with both beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) targets and those in direct line-of-sight (LOS).
It has completed more than 100 tests and training firings and is designed to combat all kinds of battlefield threats.
Furthermore, it can be used in urban combat operations as it can be fired from cramped spaces and offers a ‘fire and forget’ capability.
This capability allows the operator to quickly move from one position to another after firing the missile.
With the help of a dual-band visible/non-cooled infrared (IR) seeker, the MMP can locate both hot and cold targets. The missile will then autonomously track them.
In January this year, MBDA successfully demonstrated the MMP’s drone-guided BLOS engagement ability.
