Milan ADT Firing Post Sucessfully Completes First Troop Trials

Released on Friday, March 14, 2008

South Africa has successfully completed comprehensive troop trials with the MILAN ADT (ADvanced Technologies) firing post, developed and produced by MBDA Deutschland/LFK. This was the first operational evaluation of the new, fully digitised MILAN ADT firing post.

In the final firing campaign with the ADT firing post, a total of ten shots were fired. The MILAN ADT firing post and the MILAN 3 missile operated perfectly. The shots were fired at stationary and mobile targets at various ranges by South African forces who had been trained shortly before.

MBDA Deutschland/LFK delivered the first series production batch of the new MILAN ADT firing post to South Africa on 16 February 2008.

The new digital technology of the MILAN ADT firing post improves Detection, Recognition and Identification (DRI) capabilities and also provides distinct advantages with regard to maintenance and training tools. The universal deployability, high effectiveness and proven reliability of MILAN has resulted in its selection by 44 nations to date with a total of 360,000 MILAN guided missiles and approximately 10,000 firing posts having been sold. Some 10,000 missiles have been fired in operations and out of a total of over 100,000 firings; the hit rate has been confirmed at 95%.

"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 state-of-the-art reactive armour, but also helicopters, bunkers, fortifications or command posts in shelters," said Werner Kaltenegger, Managing Director of MBDA Deutschland/LFK with overall trans-national responsibility for MILAN ADT-ER within MBDA.