UMTAS

TAI T129 Attack Helicopter armed with UMTAS

The UMTAS program was begun in late 2003 by Turkey's Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM), specifically to provide TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK combat helicopters with an indigenous guided missile.[7] The UMTAS has been designed to engage tanks and heavily armoured vehicles.[8] It can be integrated in various platforms, including helicopters, UAVs, land vehicles, stationary platforms, light assault aircraft, ships.[3]

The UMTAS missile has fire and forget and fire and update infrared guidance with a tandem anti-tank warfare warhead.[2] The laser guided version is marketed as the L-UMTAS.[3] İsmail Demir, the Head of Defence Industry of Turkiye stated that it can engage targets at 16 kilometers.

Abilities:[2][3][9]

• Fire behind mask
• Can be used day or night and in adverse weather
• Tandem-charge warhead, effective against reactive armour
• Insensitive munition characteristics against liquid fuel fire and bullet hits
• Communication of seeker image to user and command by user using data-link
• Lock-on before or after launch (L-UMTAS)
• Update of aim point on target (UMTAS)
• Switch targets during flight (UMTAS)
• Direct fire or top attack (UMTAS)
• Fire-and-forget, fire-and-update modes (UMTAS)

Phase 1 (design) began in 2005 and finished in 2008.[9]

Phase 2 (development and qualification) began in 2008 and finished in 2015.[8]

The L-UMTAS and UMTAS version have been integrated and fired successfully from helicopters: a Turkish TAI/AgustaWestland T129 ATAK against land targets, and a US Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk against sea targets.

A UMTAS was test dropped successfully from a Baykar Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV). The missile was released at an altitude of 4,900 m (16,000 ft) to hit a 2×2 meter target self laser designated from the drone, from 8 kilometres away. These missile tests may be a step in a related program to use MAM weapons with Bayraktar drones.[10]

The MAM-L smart munition was developed from L-UMTAS.[11]

Serial production has begun with the delivery dates set in 2016.[8]

The Geleceğin Muharebe Sistemi (Future Combat System) version of the missile (UMTAS-GM) was displayed in 2023. It features dual IIR/SAL seekers in a flat split-design nose with a bidirectional RF datalink in a cylindrical body and an aligned, cruciform fold-out wing and aft fin assembly. It weighs 41.3 kg (91 lb) and can be equipped with an insensitive tandem anti-tank, high-explosive blast fragmentation, or thermobaric warhead. Range is 16 km (9.9 mi) when fired from land vehicles and naval vessels and 20 km (12 mi) from helicopters.[12]