The Serbian Military Technical Institute (MTI) has confirmed to Jane’s that development of two new versions of the Malyutka anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) has been completed and will enter service with the Serbian Army later this year.
The first one to enter service will be the Malyutka 2F, which is fitted with a thermobaric warhead that is said by MIT to be equivalent to 8 kg of TNT and highly effective against dug-in infantry. The second will be the Malyutka 2T, which is fitted with a tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead that is claimed to be able to penetrate 800 mm of conventional steel armour protected by explosive reactive armour (ERA).
Both of these Malyutka ATGWs have a maximum range of up to 3,000 m. Guidance can be via the older, manual command to line-of sight (MCLOS) method or via the more recent semi-automatic command to line-of sight (SACLOS) mode, with commands to the missile from the launcher being made through a radio frequency channel rather than the weapon being wire-guided.
In addition to being deployed in a conventional ground-based configuration, Serbia has deployed earlier versions of these ATGWs, which are based on a Russian design, on a dedicated BOV 4×4 armoured personnel carrier (APC) and BVP M80 series infantry fighting vehicles (IFV).
MIT has also confirmed that development of the Malyutka 2T5 ATGW, which features a more powerful HEAT warhead, is still under way. MIT claims this weapon, which is much longer and needs a longer launch rail, will penetrate up to 1,000 mm of armour protected by ERA and can reach targets out to a range of 5,000 m. Using its SACLOS guidance system, all the operator has to do is keep the system’s sight on the target until missile impact.
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