Trigat/(GB+NL) x Milan = Trigan.

Exeunt Trigat, enter Trigan. When the British decision to drop out of the Trigat programme -- ironically the nation that had the requirement for the largest number of firing posts and missiles -- on the last week day of the Farnborough Air Show, it became clear that the five-nation anti-tank missile programme had breathed its last. Aerospatiale Matra Missiles, however, had a card up its sleeve.

Britain, it must be said, was not entirely responsible for the Trigat's demise. Mr Delay was; showing once more how difficult a multiple-nation programme is to bring to fruition. The catalytic factor in this instance came from the Netherlands which, by undertaking endless investigations over other missile types, postponed its signature of the industrialisation and production memorandum of understanding sine die after the other nations minus Belgium (change of government) finally had -- causing impatience among the other nations.

The French industry's reaction was extremely quick. Whilst the Trigat was initially intended to fulfil the requirements of Belgium, Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands, it was clear that, ultimately, some of the 44 Milan anti-armour missile customer nations were expected to stretch the Trigat user list. Thus, there was still a strong customer base to capitalise on (some 10000 Milan launch units and 340000 missiles sold to date).

Within a six week period -- between early August and 15 September -- Aerospatiale Matra Missiles (now an Eads subsidiary) was able to present a new tangible proposal, which, in a curious twist of events as we shall see, ironed out some of the criticisms made to the Trigat programme, particularly in terms of weight and guidance emissions.

Basically, the idea is to use the fully developed Trigat missile and have it fired by a modified Milan firing post. Modifications to the latter take only 30 minutes to perform and concern the replacement of the launch ramp and the deletion of the electronic guidance unit, which saves five kilos in the process. Another modification could also see the magnification of the sight from x7 to x10.

Now to the round. The Trigat missile, through numerous tests (including those at Dera), proved that its 150 mm diameter warhead was perfectly able to defeat more than the expected armour with add-on armour. Nevertheless, it has potential growth, hence its new designations: Trigan I and Trigan II. The Trigat, it must be remembered, was to be a laser beam rider that could do without a guidance wire. On the other hand, its distracters had often questioned the emission of laser that could put the operator in danger during the twelve seconds it took the missile to reach its maximum range of 2.5 kilometres. The advantage of the system, however, was that the missile carried its own command electronics which means that by adding a wire that forwards the deviations of the missile in respect to the firing post's localiser inputs, both the laser transmitter of the original Trigat firing post and the electronic guidance unit of the Milan firing post could be deleted. On the missile, this in turn meant that the expensive laser sensor cum cooler could also be deleted and replaced by a repackaged version of the beacon developed for the Milan 3. Reconfigured rocket motor nozzles at the rear to diminish the body diameter and accommodate the guidance wire complete the modification.

The result is the Trigan I, a missile system the 50 percent industrialisation and manufacturing cost cuts of which should enable it to fit into exactly the same financial budget as the Trigat if it were to be built by France alone -- quite a feat if it really materialises, especially that it could be made to enter service roughly in the same time frame as the Trigat, in other words 2004. Mention was made earlier of a wire. Depending on development speed, this could be an optical fibre that conveys much more information than copper in a diameter reduced by half.

Like the Trigat, the Trigan retains its confined space launch capability thanks to its very low launch speed (launch rail incident angle is increased from about one degree to seven) and lateral forced guidance called Pif by the French. Incidentally, at 16 metres per second, the Trigan is believed to have the lowest soft-launch speed in its category of weapon.

Growth

More growth lies with the Trigan II, which would aim at an entry into service date of about 2010 or 2015. Envisaged options include a molybdenum-lined warhead with a larger precursor charge (around 80 mm instead of 55) able to defeat expected third-generation armour (typically as would be found on a further upgraded T-80U) and an optical fibre relaying data from a nose-mounted imaging infrared sensor for positive identification of targets at much longer ranges (indeed, the need for launcher-mounted sights able to identify a target at ranges of more than 3.5 kilometres can be questioned as there are very few places around the world that provide such a clear straight line vision from man's height). On the other hand, ranges of 5000 metres for vehicle-mounted applications could be afforded by new propellants and a stretched motor combined with a thinner and therefore longer optical fibre compared with a copper wire. Other improvements could include an integrated day/night sight channel and specific devices to cope with Arena-type counter-measure systems.

Status

At time of going to press, all ergonomic aspects had already been investigated and feasibility cleared. Aiming tests and work on the localiser with LFK as well as field of view requirements are currently nearing completion. Aerospatiale Matra is confident that, if given a go-ahead within six months, it could start delivering complete units in 2004. All other Milan operators could benefit from the programme as the cost of the launcher unit is really minimal.