Французская противотанковая ракета ENTAC: История и применение

French anti tank missile

ENTAC ("Engin Téléguidé Anti Char") or MGM 32A was a French MCLOS wire guided anti tank missile. Developed in the early 1950s, the weapon entered service with the French Army in 1957. Production ended in 1974 after approximately 140,000 had been built.

The missile was developed by the French Government agency DTAT (Direction Technique des Armements Terrestres) at the same time as the private industry SS.10. Development time for the ENTAC was longer than the SS.10, so it did not enter service until 1957. It proved to be a great improvement over the SS.10, which had entered production five years earlier. Once fully developed and tested, production of the ENTAC was given to the firm of Aerospatiale. The ENTAC was designed to be a man portable weapon or operated from a small vehicle like the Jeep, replacing the Nord SS.10 in French service.

The missile is launched from a simple metal box, which is connected to an operator station. An individual operator station can control up to 10 launcher boxes. The operator manually steers the missile by means of a small joystick. These course corrections are transmitted to the missile via a thin set of wires that trail behind the missile see MCLOS. Like many early ATGMs, the missile had a large minimum range (see 9M14 Malyutka) due to the time it took to get up to flight speed and come under operator control.

Used from 1964 until 1985.

The missile first entered service in 1957. The ENTAC may have been used by France in small numbers during the 1960s and 1970s on peacekeeping operations.

Ordered in 1966 and delivered from 1966 1969. It remained in service after the 1979 Iranian revolution and was used against Iraqi tanks during the 1980 88 war.

Entered service in 1963 after being ordered the year before. It is likely that they were used during the 1967 Six Day War against Arab tanks.

Ordered in 1966 and entered service in 1967. These were deployed during the Lebanese Civil War and was used in street fighting, particularly during the early 1980s. Having acquired some 500 examples by 1969, expeditionary units of the South African Defence Force first deployed ENTACs against People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and Cuban military advisers during Operation Savannah. The system was often mounted on unarmoured Land Rovers. South African servicemen destroyed at least one FAPLA mortar position with their missiles in September 1975. Around 2,500 ordered in 1961 and delivered from 1961 66 for the AMX VCI tank destroyer variant. Around 1,000 ordered in 1965 and acquired from 1966 1968. Acquired as the MGM 32A in 1963. Replaced by the BGM 71 TOW between 1968 and 1969 and transferred to National Guard units before being retired completely by 30 September 1972. UNITA Presumably acquired from South African stockpiles.