France buys stop-gap Javelin anti-tank guided missiles

摘要

France is to buy the US-designed Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system in order to provide French troops in Afghanistan with a near-term fire-and-forget missile capability, French Defence Minister Herve Morin has announced, writes David C Isby. Under a USD70 million sole-source contract handled through the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system, France will procure 76 firing posts and 260 missiles. These will be delivered by the end of 2010. Morin also announced that EUR20 million (USD27 million) would be invested in "dealing with problems of obsolescence in the existing Milan systems", allowing these to remain in service until 2015.