The Ukrainian-Polish anti-tank missile complex Pirat can now fight day and night

Polish companies CRW Telesystem-Mesko and PCO have completed work on a qualitatively new laser illumination and guidance system for the anti-tank guided missile Pirat. This light anti-tank missile complex was born in close cooperation with the Ukrainian state enterprise DerzhKKB Luch, Defense Express reports.

Polish companies Telesystem-Mesko and PCO have developed a new control and guidance system for the Pirat, called the CLU-P (Command Launch Unit – Pirat).

Prototype CLU-P (right) and the design of the standard CLU-P with reduced weight and dimensions (left). Photo by PCO / Telesystem-Mesko.

Now in Poland it is claimed that the anti-tank system Pirat is ready for production. And the introduction of a new lighting system may affect the tactics of using anti-tank units equipped with Pirat. Including the possibility of equipping robotic platforms with Pirat.

Aiming mark and symbols in the ocular of the Pirat anti-tank missile complex operator

The new CLU-P aiming system is integrated into a compact housing and has TV and thermal imaging cameras with improved parameters, which ensures the use of ATGM day and night. The weight of the CLU-P unit is about 8 kg. The CLU-P allows to detect a standard NATO target at a distance of more than 10 km and identify it from a distance of 2.5 km.

Observation using the CLU-P thermal imaging system, wide field of view. Photo by PCO / Telesystem-Mesko.

The image from the cameras is displayed on the display, which is an element of the device. However, the image can be transmitted to a helmet-mounted display connected to the CLU-P via a cable, or another device that captures the image in a digital standard.

The CLU-P can be connected to a helmet-mounted display or other digital image capture device. Photo by PCO / Telesystem-Mesko.

How exactly CLU-P works in different modes, Polish manufacturers showed in the video.

The project of a new light anti-tank missile complex Pirat is one of the areas of cooperation between the Ukrainian enterprise DerzhKKB Luch and a number of Polish companies. The agreement on the establishment of the Pirat anti-tank missile complex for the Polish Army was signed on July 23, 2014.

The Pirat light anti-tank missile complex project is being implemented by the Polish companies MESKO S.A., CRW Telesystem Mesko, and the Military Technological University in cooperation with the Ukrainian DerzhKKB Luch.

In turn, CRW Telesystem-Mesko is responsible for the gyroscopically stabilized guidance head, autopilot (in cooperation with DerzhKKB “Ray”) and all optoelectronics, and MESKO – for the warhead, engines and the rest (including PU).

In terms of its performance, the missile from the Pirate anti-aircraft missile system is close to the capabilities of the Corsair anti-RPG missile system, which has been adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is exported.

However, the Ukrainian anti-tank missile system “Corsair” uses a scheme to control the missile with a laser beam that shines in the tail of the R-3 missile. The operator must keep the target in sight until the moment the missile hits.

In the Polish “Pirat”, the missile is aimed at the target with the help of a laser illuminator, the beam of which forms a point on the target, which should hit the missile. Thus such illuminator can be established both on the starting, and to be external.

The Pirate anti-tank missile is aimed at the target by means of a laser illuminator.

The maximum firing range in the infantry version of the Pirate anti-tank missile system is 2,500 m. The missile is equipped with warheads with three types weighing 2.5 kg – cumulative, thermobaric and high-explosive fragmentation.