Armor: October 14, 1999

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The Army has decided that the next tank will be armed with the Compact Kinetic Energy Missile and an electromagnetic cannon of a medium caliber.--Stephen V Cole

Bofors has released details of the MBT-LAW, one of the candidates for the British Army's requirement for a new light anti-tank weapon. The MBT-LAW is 1m long and weighs 11.6kg. It has a range of 600km (although future growth may reach 1000m). It uses a soft-launch system (a small charge kicks the missile out of the tube before the rocket ignites, allowing the weapon to be fired from inside a room). Bofors had originally intended to include two warheads (to penetrate reactive armor) but instead it will carry a single 100mm warhead mounted to fire down and penetrate the thinner top armor. The missile can be set to fly over a tank or slam directly into a non-armored target.--Stephen V Cole