MBDA launches Akeron tactical missile series

MBDA has launched a new missile family known as Akeron, in a rebranding of the Missile Moyenne Portée (MMP) antitank weapon and the Missile Haut de Trame (MHT) types.

The former is now known as Akeron MP with the latter named Akeron LP.

The Akeron family 'incorporates the latest technologies in terms of high-resolution multi-band imagers, multi-effect warheads (anti-tank, anti-infrastructure, anti-personnel), data links, and multi-mode guidance algorithms based on AI techniques’, MBDA noted in an 8 June statement. 

These technologies ensure 'robust and precise guidance at any distance, in all conditions', the company added. 'Each has their own specifications in order to be perfectly adapted to the missions of the combat units and platforms using them.’

Akeron provides operators with the ‘broadest spectrum of tactical options’ to manage targets based on a wide number of modes of engagement, according to the manufacturer.

‘These include ‘fire and forget’, human-in-the-loop, locking the target before firing (LOBL), or locking on after firing (LOAL), which facilitates firing beyond line of sight (BLoS),’ it added.

Akeron missiles are designed to meet current and future operational needs for dismounted combat from land, sea or air (helicopter or UAV) platforms. MBDA also claimed the missiles are 'ideal for integration into the digital environment of the battlefield, and suited for collaborative combat’.

Long-range Akeron missiles will arm Tiger MkIII attack helicopters for France and Spain. The Tiger MkIII programme was launched in March 2022 by the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR) on behalf of the two countries with contracts for MBDA and Airbus, though Germany has not yet committed to it.

Overall, the Tiger MkIII contract covers the development and production of 60 helicopters – 42 for France (retaining an option for an additional 25) and 18 for Spain.