The SA Army and the Special Forces have received the first of about 30 antitank guided missile launchers, upgraded at a cost of R167.4 million, as part of Project Kingfisher.
The contract provided for the remanufacture of Milan (Missile d'Infanterie Leger ANtichar - infantry light antitank missile) launchers placed in storage in 1996 to an "advanced digital technology" standard.
The deal also included training, missiles and assorted maintenance equipment, spare parts and other materiel.
The SA Army contracted European missile maker MBDA in December 2006 to upgrade some of the army's Milan launcher inventory to ADT (ADvanced Technology) standard and to provide new Milan 3 missiles for the launchers.
SA acquired the second-generation semi-automatic command line-of sight (Saclos) missiles in 1974 and the original missiles were too old to safely use by the 1990s.
MBDA says the SA Army formally accepted the missile at its German facility at Schrobenhausen in December 2007, a year after the deal was first inked.
There army representatives checked and confirmed the functionality of an initial five units. In addition, the maintenance equipment, initial spares package and logistic and maintenance systems for product support were demonstrated and also received customer acceptance.
Work then proceeded briskly. MBDA and local BEE-empowered partner Fulcrum Defence Solutions delivered the first batch of rejuvenated Milan ADT firing posts to the SA Army on 16 February. The delivery also included Milan 3 munitions and a training simulator.
Next followed troop trails at the SA Army's Infantry School training institution, in Oudtshoorn, in the Western Cape province. As SA is the launch customer of the Milan ADT firing post, the trials were also the first operational evaluation of the new, fully digitised mount, MBDA says.
The trials concluded with a live fire exercise during which 10 rounds were fired - and 10 hits recorded. Witnesses say the Milan ADT firing post and its Milan 3 missiles operated perfectly when engaging both stationary and mobile targets at various ranges.
"The troop trial confirms Milan's unique reliability. The extraordinary capabilities of the weapon system, which have already been successfully proven in numerous field operations, allow the engagement of a wide variety of targets, including not only tanks with reactive armour, but also helicopters, bunkers, fortifications or command posts in shelters," says Werner Kaltenegger, MD of MBDA Deutschland with overall transnational responsibility for Milan ADT-ER (Extended Range) within MBDA.
ADT-ER is the combination of the ADT launcher and the Milan 3 missile.
"The delivery of the new Milan ADT firing post is an important contribution to the modernisation of SA's armed forces. Thanks to its improved optics, integrated thermal imager and digitised localiser, Milan ADT meets the requirements of today's modern armed forces for a close combat weapon deployable in all conditions, day and night against a wide range of ground targets," he adds.
Milan is in use with 44 countries. To date, 360 000 Milan guided missiles and approximately 10 000 firing posts have been sold.
Some 10 000 missiles have been fired in operations and out of a total of over 100 000 firings (which includes training rounds) the hit rate has been a consistently high 95%.
Older generation weapons - without IT-enabled Saclos guidance - typically boast a hit-rate below 30%.
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