Mistral

Mistral mounted on a truck platform of the 54th Artillery Regiment

Type Manportable surface-to-air missile
Place of origin France
Service history
In service 1988–present
Used by See Operators
Wars Second Congo War
Production history
Designer MBDA
Manufacturer MBDA
Specifications
Length 1.86 m
Diameter 90 mm
Crew 1

Effective firing range up to 6 km

Warhead High Explosive with high density tungsten
balls
Warhead weight 2.95 kg
Detonation Laser proximity or impact triggered
mechanism

Engine Solid Rocket Motor

Speed 800 m/s, approx. Mach 2.6 (high
supersonic)
Guidance Infrared homing
system
 Mistral is an infrared homing MANPADS manufactured by the European multinational
company MBDA missile systems (formerly by Matra BAe Dynamics). Based on the French
SATCP (Sol-Air À Très Courte Portée), the portable missile later to become the Mistral began
development in 1974. It was initially deployed in 1988 for the first version (S1) and 1997 for the
second version (M2).

Weapon platforms
The basic Mistral missile is used with a man-portablelaunch unit. There are also launch units that
allow the missile to be fired from armoured vehicles, ships or helicopters (such as
the Aérospatiale Gazelle, Denel Rooivalk, or Eurocopter Tiger). To reject the flares ejected from
the rear of the targeted aircraft, proportional navigation using a gyro as a reference is adopted for
Mistral, instead of the pursuit method in earlier IR-guided MANPADS. To further enhance
the ECCM capability, the seeker of Mistral has a very narrow field of view to reject decoys and
interference, but the seeker can tilt in the range of +/− 38 degrees. On the launcher, the missile
runs up the gyro in 2 seconds, and total reaction time is 5 seconds. The all-aspect two-color (2–4
and 3–5 µm) cooled IR-seeker of Mistral is developed by SAT, and the missile adopts both laser
proximity and impact fuzes.
A close-in weapon system based on Mistral is a six-missile version called Sadral, with a
stabilized rapid-reload launcher that is fully automated. A CSEE developed fire control director
is integrated to the launcher, consisted of TV camera and FLIR. Image produced by both
directors appear on the screen in the operator console below deck, and the missiles are locked
onto the target before being launched. A fully loaded Sadral launcher weighs 1080 kg, and the
operator console weighs 280 kg. A two-missile unit installed on ships is called Simbad, and a
newly launched four-missile version is called Tetral. An evolution of the Simbad is now
proposed: Simbad RC. Both Tetral and Simbad RC are remote controlled from the ship's deck
while the original Simbad is manually operated with a simple optical sight.


Mounted system on an ACMAT truck of the 54th Artillery regiment


Simbad missile defense system


Sadral missile defense system on the Dupleix
PreviousNext
Inventory
Mistral entered series production in 1989 and is now deployed by 37 armed forces of 25
countries (eight countries in Europe, eight in the Asia-Pacific, five in South America, three in the
Middle East), including Austria, Belgium, the Brazilian Marine Corps,
Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Morocco, New
Zealand, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Spain, and Venezuela.

Combat history
Mistral missiles used by the Rwandan forces in the Second Congo War shot down a
Zimbabwean Air Force BAE Hawk fighter on March 23, 1999. [1]

Submarine Air Defence Weapon

On 26 September 2012 DCNS at the company's Le Mourillon plant announced plans to design
and build a submarine canister-based air defence weapon based on the Mistral. The concept is
similar to the British Submarine Launched Airflight Missile developed by Vickers in the 1970s
and tested on HMS Aeneas and three boats of the Gal-class. [2]

SIMBAD-RC
SIMBAD-RC is a naval remote controlled turret using Mistral missiles developed by MBDA. [3]

Operators