There are those who say that the perpetrator of the shooting of the Russian Orion-E drone was the Martlet Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM). While mentioned in the previous article, the missile launched by troops of the 95th Air Assault Brigade of Ukraine was a Starstreak missile.
Actually, the Martlet and Starstreak systems have some similarities, the launchers of both missiles are the same, but there are slight differences in the tube, where the rear of the Martlet tube looks narrower.
If Starstreak was created from the start as a short-range hand-held missile - SHORAD (Short Range Air Defense), the Martlet was initially emphasized as a light air-to-surface missile.
Precisely this missile is a complete weapon on the AW159 Wildcat helicopter. In addition, this missile is also a complement to the Schiebel S-100 copter drone. It was only recently that the British Marines tested the LMM for the MANPADS missile with the Banshee drone target.
The role of the Martlet as a guided missile is not popular, because the speed of flight is not as fantastic as the MANPADS Starstreak missile. Martlet's launch speed is 'only' Mach 1.5.
In comparison, the launch speed of Starstreak can reach up to Mach 4. Although there is a difference in glide speed, Martlet and Starstreak are made by the same manufacturer, namely Thales Air Defense.
From the specifications, the Martlet has a maximum shooting range of 6 km and a minimum firing range of 400 meters. As a power source, it uses a two-stage solid propellant and a multi-mode guidance system – laser beam riding and/or semi-active laser guidance and terminal infrared homing. While the detonation relies on a laser proximity sensor.
Martlet weighs 13 kg, of which 3 kg is the weight of the warhead. This missile has a length of 1.3 meters and a diameter of 76 mm.
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