On 12th February, 2015, another test firing of the MMP missile took place at the French Procurement Agency DGA Techniques Terrestres site in Bourges central France.
This latest firing, against a steel target positioned at an intermediate range, was carried out in lock on before launch mode (fire-and-forget) using the missile seeker’s colour TV channel. All aspects of the test, covering launch, flight trajectory and target impact, took place optimally and fully conformed to the simulations of MBDA’s project teams.
This firing took place a few days after the first MMP test firing during which the missile confirmed its excellent accuracy after locking on after launch against a target at a range of more than 4,000m and which was hidden from view at launch.
With this firing, another element in the analysis of MMP’s deployment envelope has been accomplished, the major part of which has already been completed.
The main features that have been demonstrated in flight to date involve firing at long and intermediate ranges and using two types of missile trajectory (high and intermediate), seeker guidance via both the visible TV and non-cooled infrared channels, target lock on before and after launch, the latter thanks to the fibre-optic data-link.
