Army gets gets good Stinger launch from MML
An AIM-92 Stinger missile is fired down-range from the US Army’s new Interceptor launch platform at the Eglin Air Force Base range March 23. The 96th Test Wing hosted the Army’s Stinger Based Systems and Raytheon for two days to demonstrate the new launch platform’s capabilities. The interceptor can hold up to four missiles and can be mounted and launched from a variety of ground vehicles.(Photo: Samuel King Jr./US Air Force)
The Multi-Mission Launcher, designed in-house at the US Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center at Rocketown USA (Huntsville/Redstone Arsenal) is designed to produce a four-pack portable launcher that can be towed by just about any vehicle.
The neat thing is, as reported by Defense News, the MML is designed to fire not only Stinger short range SAMs but also Raytheon’s AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles in longer range anti-air missions and Lockheed Martin’s Longbow Hellfire missiles in anti-tank/pillbox roles (and to home-in on active jammers, a capability seldom mentioned).
A lightweight towed AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar with a range of 40~ miles and the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) would be used for targeting and C4I.
All in all, you get a budget mini-Patriot system that can be used on smaller and more localized targets, leaving PAC-3 Patriots/THAAD to worry about upper tier threats.
Redstone’s base news has been covering this launcher in detail the past few months and has a picture of a 15-pack launcher truck mounted on an LMTV, which seems to be an option they are looking hard at.
The truck-based system launches interceptors and provides 360 degrees of air coverage, but also has a very unique capability not available to soldiers until now.
“In the past we have only had one or two solutions. This system allows us to have multiple solutions, multiple interceptors, to kill the inbound target,” explained Brigadier General Thurgood. It has the capability to shoot 15 interceptors actually and they could all be different missile. The potential targets include; cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems, rockets, artillery and mortars.
So in the future, don’t be surprised to see a 4-5 vehicle MML battery tag along with every combat arms battalion, or maybe even a 2-3 vehicle MML section as part of a reinforced company sized team to give the Joes some cover from rockets and mortars as well as the occasional unlikely but still possible low-flying helicopter, UAV and MiG.