UMTAS or Mizrak-U ''(Uzun Menzilli Tanksavar Sistemi)'' is a modern long range

air-to-surface An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common prop ...

anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

developed by Turkish armor and missile manufacturer

Roketsan Roketsan Roket Sanayii ve Ticaret A.S. is a major Turkish weapons manufacturer and defense contractor based in Ankara, Turkey. Incorporated in 1988 by Turkey's Defense Industry Executive Committee (''SSİK'') to establish the nation's industri ...

Background

The UMTAS program was begun in late 2003 by Turkey's Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM), specifically to provide

TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK The TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK is a twin-engine, tandem seat, multi-role, all-weather attack helicopter based on the Agusta A129 Mangusta platform. The T129 was developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in partnership with Leonardo (Ag ...

combat helicopters with an indigenous

guided missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

. The UMTAS has been designed to engage tanks and heavily armoured vehicles. It can be integrated in various platforms, including helicopters, UAVs, land vehicles, stationary platforms, light assault aircraft, ships.

Description

The UMTAS missile has ''

fire and forget Fire-and-forget is a type of missile guidance which does not require further external intervention after launch such as illumination of the target or Wire-guided missile, wire guidance, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line- ...

'' and ''fire and update''

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...

guidance Guidance may refer to: Arts and media * ''Guidance'' (album), by American instrumental rock band Russian Circles * ''Guidance'' (film), a Canadian comedy film released in 2014 * ''Guidance'' (web series), a 2015–2017 American web series * "G ...

with a tandem

anti-tank warfare Anti-tank warfare originated from the need to develop technology and tactics to destroy tanks during World War I. Since the Triple Entente deployed the first tanks in 1916, the German Empire developed the first anti-tank weapons. The first devel ...

warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...

. The laser guided version is marketed as the L-UMTAS. İsmail Demir, the Head of Defence Industry of Turkiye stated that it can engage targets at 16 kilometers. Abilities: * Fire behind mask * Can be used day or night and in adverse weather *

Tandem-charge A tandem-charge or dual-charge weapon is an explosive device or projectile that has two or more stages of detonation, assisting it to penetrate either reactive armour on an armoured vehicle or strong structures. Anti-tank Tandem charges are ...

warhead, effective against

reactive armour Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ener ...

Insensitive munition Insensitive munitions are munitions that are designed to withstand stimuli representative of severe but credible accidents. The current range of stimuli are shock (from bullets, fragments and shaped charge jets), heat (from fires or adjacent ther ...

characteristics against liquid fuel fire and bullet hits * Communication of seeker image to user and command by user using data-link * Lock-on before or after launch (L-UMTAS) * Update of aim point on target (UMTAS) * Switch targets during flight (UMTAS) *

Direct fire Direct fire or line-of-sight fire refers to firing of a ranged weapon whose projectile is launched directly at a target within the line-of-sight of the user. The firing weapon must have a sighting device and an unobstructed view to the target, w ...

top attack Plunging fire is a form of indirect fire, where gunfire is fired at a trajectory to make it fall on its target from above. It is normal at the high trajectories used to attain long range, and can be used deliberately to attack a target not suscep ...

(UMTAS) *

Fire-and-forget Fire-and-forget is a type of missile guidance which does not require further external intervention after launch such as illumination of the target or wire guidance, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line-of-sight of the targe ...

, fire-and-update modes (UMTAS)

Development

Phase 1 (design) began in 2005 and finished in 2008. Phase 2 (development and qualification) began in 2008 and finished in 2015. The L-UMTAS and UMTAS version have been integrated and fired successfully from helicopters: a Turkish

against land targets, and a US

Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk The Sikorsky SH-60/MH-60 Seahawk (or Sea Hawk) is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family. The most significant modificatio ...

against sea targets. A UMTAS was test dropped successfully from a

Baykar Bayraktar TB2 The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş ...

unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, colloquially shortened as drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance ...

(UCAV). The missile was released at an altitude of 16,000 ft to hit a 2×2 meter target self laser designated from the drone, from 8 kilometres away. These missile tests may be a step in a related program to use MAM weapons with Bayraktar drones. The MAM-L smart munition was developed from L-UMTAS. Serial production has begun with the delivery dates set in 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Umtas Anti-tank guided missiles Anti-tank guided missiles of Turkey Air-to-surface missiles of Turkey Roketsan products Military equipment introduced in the 2010s Fire-and-forget weapons