MBDA has confirmed that first firings of its Missile Moyen Portee (MMP) anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) have been successfully carried out from a Multi-Purpose Combat Vehicle (MPCV) at an undisclosed location.
MPCV was developed by MBDA and Rheinmetall Defense Electronics and the first batch were sold to an undisclosed customer in the Middle East in the air defence configuration armed with MBDA Mistral fire-and-forget surface-to-air missile (SAM) and a 12.7mm machine gun (MG).
Trials are still scheduled to take place with the MBDA Integrated MMP Precision Attack Combat Turret (IMPACT) installed on a Milrem Robotics THeMIS modular unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). This can operate for up to 10 hours with a full fuel tank of which 1.5 hours is in the silent mode. Maximum speed is being quoted as 22km/h and it can carry a maximum payload of up to 750kg.
IMPACT is a lightweight turret developed by MBDA using internal research and development funding and weighs only 250kg. As well as being installed on a UGV it can also be installed on a wide range of platforms with the operator seated under armour protection.
Initial French Army MMP contract covers the supply of 400 firing posts, 3,200 missiles with first deliveries being made late in 2017.
MMP has a maximum stated range of over 4,000m, but during demonstrations in 2018 it reached 5,000m.
In addition to the standard infantry versions of the MMP, the French Army will also deploy MMP installed on the Jaguar (6×6) reconnaissance vehicle which is the replacement for the currently deployed AMX-10RCR (6×6) and Sagaie (6×6) armoured cars and the VAB (4×4) in the anti-tank role armed with HOT ATGW.
Two MMP are integrated into the right side of the turret of the Jaguar (6 x 6) reconnaissance vehicle with an additional two MMP in reserve for manual loading.
