The US Army has struck a deal with Saab, Sweden’s leading defence manufacturer, for an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) of AT4 anti-armour weapon systems.
Under the contract, valued at $494m (Skr5bn) over the next five years, the AT4 is US Army’s answer to the XM919 Individual Assault Munition (IAM) programme. Order values will be determined incrementally when an order is placed under the IDIQ deal.
The IAM programme aims to replace the Army’s current range of launchers, also designated ‘XM919’: M72, M136 and the M141.
Saab’s AT4 is a lightweight, shoulder-launched, 81-millimetre unguided weapon system that has been in use since 1985, when it was first inducted into the US Army. Specifically, the Army has selected the ‘Combined Space Tandem Warhead’ (CS-TW), with the least range in the AT4 family of systems at 200 kilometres.
“Our new IAM solution enhanced capabilities, removes combat burdens and is uniquely created to meet the US customer’s needs,” said Erik Smith, president and chief executive of Saab in the US. “Saab leveraged a successful, combat-proven system to make it even more effective.”
To date, Saab has delivered more than 700,000 AT4 systems to the US armed forces.
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Likewise, the AT4 is also used for the protection of vital assets, fixed defence installations and key supply points. Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Iraq, Ireland, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Sweden, the UK, the US and Venezuela are among the countries that have deployed the weapon in their artilleries.
Crucially, the user says that its “shoulder-launched munitions increase the lethality and survivability of the infantryman and provide him a direct fire capability to defeat enemy personnel within armoured platforms.
“It also provides the soldier a direct fire capability to defeat enemy personnel located within field fortifications, bunkers, caves, masonry structures, and lightly armed vehicles and to suppress enemy personnel in lightly armoured vehicles.”
