Surprised no one cross posted this yet. Via CDF, first posted by Bluejay.
China offers a 'fire-and-forget' infantry antitank missile
IHS Jane’s 360
China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO) used the Eurosatory 2014 exhibition to publicise its new Red Arrow 12 shoulder-fired antitank missile system. This is China's first infantry-launched fire-and-forget antitank weapon.
Designed to be carried and fired by a single soldier, a complete Red Arrow 12 system weighs 22 kg, with the launch tube and missile accounting for 17 kg of this total weight. The launch tube is 1.25 m long, but no official figures have been released for the diameter of the tube, or the length and diameter of the missile.
To judge from a photograph showing a missile launch, the missile is about 98 cm long and 13.5 cm in diameter, while the launch tube is about 17 cm in diameter.
According to a leaflet released by NORINCO, the missile uses an uncooled imaging infrared (IIR) seeker to provide all-weather day and night capability, but a day-only version based on a television imaging seeker is also available. The maximum range of 4,000 m cited in the leaflet was for the day version, while the IIR variant has a maximum range of 2,000 km, IHS Jane's was told by a NORINCO official.
Red Arrow 12 is a lock-on-before launch missile. Once launched, it will home autonomously onto its target, allowing the operator to immediately take cover or reload to engage another target.
The use of a soft-launch configuration allows the missile to be fired from inside buildings or bunkers. Once the missile is clear of the launch tube, forward-folding cruciform wings and tail surfaces of constant chord deploy rearward to assume their operating positions. The main motor then ignites to power the missile, which can then fly either an arched top-attack trajectory or a direct low-level flight path to the target.
At an incidence of 0°, the missile's tandem shaped-charge warhead can penetrate up to 1,100 mm of rolled homogenous armour protected by explosive reactive armour, said NORINCO, and the system can be used tanks, bunkers, buildings, small surface craft, and slow-flying helicopters.
The system is "newly developed", IHS Jane's was told, and is already in service with China's People's Liberation Army. In its current form, Red Arrow 12 is a shoulder-fired infantry weapon, but would be suitable for installation on combat vehicles.
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So the PLA finally have a Javelin equivalent, fire forget, soft launch, with top attack and direct attack modes.
And a penetration of 1100mm RHA should be able to defeat many MBTs even without top attack.
No pictures yet unfortunately.
