Army and Air Force to Receive AT4s
Saab has won a contract from India’s MoD to supply the country’s Army and Air Force with an unspecified number of the company’s AT4 anti-tank weapon. The contract was signed by FFV Ordnance AB, the entity responsible for marketing Saab’s ground combat systems in India.
“The Indian Armed Forces, which are already users of our Carl-Gustaf system, have also selected Saab for their single-shot weapon need,” said Görgen Johansson, head of Saab’s dynamics business. “The Indian Army and Indian Air Force can be confident in the knowledge that they have the necessary firepower to give them the advantage.”
The company said in a 20 January statement the order includes the AT4 confined space, anti-structure tandem (AT4CS AST) variant of the single-shot weapon, which can be fired from confined spaces including urban environments. The variant features a tandem warhead with a breach/blast mode designed to defeat targets in buildings and to destroy structures. It delivers a HEAT warhead using a shallow cone, resulting in low penetration but making a wider opening.: the high-blast warhead then follows through. The AST has a shorter effective range than other AT4 variants (200m as opposed to 300m for the standard HEAT version and 600m in the extended range version) and does not have an armour-penetration capability.
Angus Batey and Gabriel Dominguez for MON
