Air-sol Moyenne Portée Information
The Air-Sol Moyenne Portée (ASMP; medium-range air to surface missile) is a French air-launched nuclear missile. Part of the Force de frappe, in French nuclear doctrine it is the last-resort "warning shot" prior to a full-scale employment of strategic nuclear weapons. The missile's construction was contracted to Aérospatiale's Tactical Missile Division, now part of MBDA.
ASMP entered service in 1986, replacing the earlier free-fall AN-22 bomb on France's Dassault Mirage IV aircraft and the AN-52 bomb on Dassault Super Étendard. About 84 weapons are stockpiled. Carrier aircraft are the Dassault Mirage 2000N, Rafale, and Super Étendard; the earlier Mirage IVP was completely retired in 1996.
ASMP is 5.38 m long and weighs 860 kg. It is a supersonic stand-off missile powered by a liquid-fuel ramjet. It flies at Mach 2 to Mach 3, with a range between 80 km and 300 km depending on flight profile. Warhead is a single TN 81 with two yield options, 150 and 300 kt of TNT.
An advanced version known as ASMP-A has a range of about 500 km at a speed of up to Mach 3 with the new TNA (tête nucléaire aéroporté) 300kt thermonuclear warhead. It entered service in October 2009 with the Mirage 2000NK3 of squadron EC 3/4 at Istres and on July 2010 with the Rafales of squadron EC 1/91 at Saint Dizier.[1]
Photo
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ASMP-A
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Back of ASMP-A mock-up
References
- ^ Robert Hewson, "French ASMP-A missile enters service". Jane's Defence Weekly. July 14, 2010, p. 14.
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Categories: Cold War air-to-surface missiles of France | Air-to-surface missiles of France | Nuclear air-to-surface missiles | Nuclear missiles of France
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