MBDA said it has started integration tests with MMP (Missile Moyenne Portée – Medium Range Missile), which the company has been developing under its own funding since 2009 to equip the French army with a new ground combat weapon available as of 2017.
A December 2011 risk reduction contract from the French DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement) validated the technical choices behind the critical equipment involved with the missile and its firing post.
The capability of the missile’s non-cooled infrared seeker to guide it toward the target in fire and forget mode, the electro-optical performance of the latest generation cameras in the firing post as well as the dynamic behavior of the fiber optic connection necessary for man in the loop operation were also confirmed.
The missile configuration and its associated equipment have been fixed, allowing the program to enter the integration phase at the beginning of 2013, with the first functional models being integrated and tested.
At the same time, environmental testing of a full model has allowed MMP’s sub-assembly environmental specifications to be created. This allows progress towards the shock and vibration testing phase.
More recently, the confined space firing capability was demonstrated during a series of tests on several types of ground surfaces in MBDA’s test tunnel in Bourges, France. The positive results of these tests were necessary to assure the safety of the system operators who will be participating in the firing campaigns with the firing post.
Also, successful tests with the warhead have been conducted against the latest generation of explosive reactive armor. New trials also were started recently to verify the weapon’s behavior in its anti-infrastructure mode to finalize development of the multi-functional warhead.
Also validated were the ergonomics of the firing post as well as its modular architecture, which confirms the solution intended for the integration of MMP on the CT-40 cannon turret. French defense group Nexter has already begun studies on this.
The MMP program was confirmed in France’s Defense and National Security White Paper and reaffirmed by the French Minister of Defense during his visit to MBDA’s Bourges facility on June 10.