UK signs £14 million Brimstone missile contract with MBDA

The British Ministry of Defense has placed a £14 million or $22 million contract with MBDA Missile Systems for the delivery of air-to-ground Brimstone missiles to replenish Royal Air Force (RAF) stocks. The missiles are manufactured at Henlow, Bedfordshire and Lostock, Bolton.

The inventory of precision guided Brimstone missiles was depleted after campaigns in Afghanistan and especially Libya, where it proved highly effective in engaging moving or static targets in all-weather conditions with pin point accuracy.

The original Brimstone missile is equipped with a Millimetric Wave (mmW) radar seeker. The second version adds laser guidance to its dual-mode seeker. The mmW seeker allows it to target the most vulnerable part of the target and makes it highly resistant to jamming.

The Brimstone is fully programmable and can be used in autonomous fire-and-forget or semi-autonomous mode. The tandem shaped charge warhead is designed for low collateral damage and effective against reactive armor. Up to 3 Brimstones can be carried on a single launcher.


Specifications
Weight: 50 kg
Length: 1.8 m
Diameter: 0.18 m
Engine: Solid fuel rocket
Maximum range: 12 km
Guidance: millimetric wave radar or millimetric wave radar / laser guidance


http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/raf-brimstone-missiles-16012013

By Duch.seb [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons