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Forget ATGM that is effective both day and foreign customer of the ATGM with the Swedish Defence Procurement
night due to its Imaging Infrared Seeker. The agency announcing in April this year that it had signed an agree-
Karaok, which can engage and destroy armor ment with the General Directorate of Armaments of the Ministry
and fortified bunkers at a distance of 2-4 kilo- of the Armed Forces of France for procurement of the missile. The
meters, is 125mm in diameter and weighs less agreement between the two countries also includes R&D on the
than 35 pounds. Incorporating an armor-pierc- missile and hints at the possibility of having the ATGM produced in
ing tandem warhead, the system offers both Sweden by Saab.
direct and overhead strike modes with a fire-
and-forget mode.
The missiles that MBDA will supply to Sweden will receive the offi-
Major Player cial designation Robotsystem 58 (RBS-58). Training of the Swedish
armed forces on the Akeron MP will start later this year, with deliveries
Missile manufacturer MBDA’s Akeron MP is a expected early next year. According to reports, Luxembourg has
fifth generation ATGM missile that is signifi- also ordered an unspecified number of the ATGMs while MBDA has
cantly more advanced than the fourth and third seen interest in the weapon from Belgium and Qatar as well.
generation weapons currently available on the
market. The lightweight multi-purpose missile, The company’s Enforcer man-portable missile is scheduled to enter
which was developed by the company as a service with the German army in 2024. MBDA started development
replacement for the Milan family of ATGMs in of the weapon in 2014 and in January 2020, announced a contract
French service, has a weight of about 15 kg and with the German army. The missile, which has an effective range of
has a range of over 4,000 meters. It is capable more than 1,800 m, can be used to destroy lightly armored static
of engaging armored targets, night or day, and and moving targets, targets behind cover, and against targets at
uses a tandem HEAT warhead. The ATGM has a long-range in urban environments. The Enforcer, which can be
multiple targeting modes as well as a fire-and- operated by a single soldier, consists of a single-use carbon-fiber
forget capability. It is also capable of lock-on launch tube weighing less than 9 kg, a missile that weighs less than 7
after launch (LOAL) for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) kg, and a sight system mounted on the left side of the launcher tube.
targets.
Standing Out
The Akeron MP entered service with the French
Army in 2017 and was used in operations for Another ATGM that has had its reputation enhanced because of
the first time in 2018. This January, France’s the ongoing conflict is Swedish manufacturer Saab’s Next gener-
Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) ation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW), more than 3,615 of which
announced that it had ordered 200 Akeron MP were supplied to Ukraine by the United Kingdom after the Russian
missiles. Sweden is set to become the first major aggression. Known as the ultimate tank killer, NLAW lived up to its

16 | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2023 WWW.GBP.COM.SG/ADT