MBDA’s new M3D Modular Mini Missile technology demonstrator is making its first public appearance at ILA. The vehicle is actually a miniaturised flying platform intended for reconnaissance as well as target engagement, depending on the nature of the payload carried. In the weaponised version the Mini Missile can be equipped with non-lethal or lethal means.
Taking off and landing vertically, the M3D is equally well suited for hover flight and for fast cruising flight, and though it has a flight endurance of just 15-20 minutes, it can undertake stationary observations, putting down on a roof or open space and transmitting back imagery for several hours via a real-time broadband data link, until commanded back into the air by the operator.
The Mini Missile is equipped with a complex, miniaturised autopilot with an inertial navigation system, with additional sensors including GPS, an earth magnetic field sensor and altimeters. All of this makes the M3D easy to control, and its operators require little specialised training.
Weighing less than one kilogram, and making extensive use of COTS components, the M3D is light and cheap, and is well suited to operations in urban areas, even inside buildings and structures.
A prototype of the Modular Mini Missile has been tested by the Federal Office for Military Technology and Procurement (BWB), and others are in use as flying sensor platforms by research institutes.
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| M3D Modular Mini Missile and Dr Dietmar Kunze |
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Source: Flight Daily News