The Kornet-EM is seen here on a Tigr light armoured vehicle, but can be integrated with a wide range of platforms. Source: IHS/Patrick Allen

Bahrain will be the first user of the Kornet-EM anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) system, the ITAR-TASS news agency cited Anatoly Isaykin, the director general of the Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport, as saying on 12 August.

The Kornet-EM is a vehicle-mounted system with two retractable launchers, each with four laser-guided, fire-and-forget missiles and its own optronic and guidance package. This means the system can simultaneously engage two targets.

The promoters of the system say this also means the system can destroy a vehicle fitted with an active protection system by firing two missiles at it. They claim its accuracy is five times better than that of earlier Kornet versions due to the use of an automatic target tracker.

The range is also significantly longer than earlier versions: 10 km when firing a missile with a thermobaric warhead and 8 km when firing one with tandem high-explosive anti-tank warheads.

Isaykin said Bahrain's Kornet-EM order was one of "a number of major arms contracts with the Middle East and North Africa … they include supplies of virtually all types of weapons and military equipment".

He added that Namibia had ordered Kornet-E ATGW systems as part of a package that included vehicles, mortars, munitions, simulators, personal weapons, and equipment for special units.

http://www.janes.com/article/41871/b...st-kornet-atgw