For modern armies, the guided anti-tank missiles are not just an anti-tank weapon, but a multi-purpose
guided artillery shell. The Milan is the system that played the most important role in this
transformation. For almost half a century it has been the nightmare of tanks and the
reliable companion of the infantry. Now we are investigating the Milan, a true guided
anti-tank missile legend. Please don't forget to subscribe to our channel
before we start. Indeed, the Milan is an important system that
transformed the concept of using guided anti-tank missiles. However, when its design began in
1962, no one foresaw that it would be such a revolutionary weapon.
In those years, NATO's military planners had to figure out how to defend a 900-kilometer-long
front from the coast of the Baltic Sea to Austria.
The Warsaw Pact, which already has numerical superiority, would turn into an unstoppable
flood of steel against NATO troops spreading across a wide front if it was the first to
attack. In order to solve this problem, placing infantry
units equipped with guided anti-tank missiles on the front lines seemed the most effective
solution. These soldiers would intercept or at least slow down the attack of enemy armoured
units. Then, NATO armoured units coming from behind
would launch a counterattack. That was the plan.
However, the first generation guided anti-tank missiles were bulky and insufficient for this
task. The Milan began to be designed as a system
that would give infantrymen waiting to meet tanks on the front lines a higher chance of
fighting. Germany and France had brought together all their knowledge in this field for the
project. However, as the USSR started to put new and
superior tanks such as the T-64 into service, the requirements changed and the development
process was prolonged. So the Milan became operational only in 1972.
Milan means kite the bird in German and French. However its name actually derived from the
French “Missile d’Infanterie Léger ANtichar”, meaning “infantry light anti-tank missile.”
The Milan immediately started to replace the first generation systems used by the Western
Bloc in these years like the Cobra, ENTAC, and Bantam.
Compared to its predecessors, the system had much higher hit rate, reliability and armour-piercing
capability. Now NATO infantry had a real chance against
the tanks of the communist bloc. The missile of the system is put into disposable
tubes. This design allows to decrease reload time and increase transportability.
A typical Milan team consists of three-man crew. First man carries tripod, the second
firing unit and the last one the tubes. The Milan becomes ready to fire within three minutes.
After the pressing the firing button, the missile launches from the tube and the tube
is ejected to the rear. After missile leaves the the tube the fins on it open. In a safe
distance the missile ignites the sustainer rocket engine. The Milan has semi-automatic
command to line-of-sight guidance system. The sighting device calculates the angular
difference in direction from the missile position to the target location. It is then given electronic
instructions via wire to the missile that corrected its flight path so that it would
fly along a straight line from the sighting device to the target. Thanks to the wire guidance
system the Milan cannot affected radio jamming. Depending on the model, the missile is tracked
either by a tail-mounted infrared lamp or an electronic-flash lamp. Until the missile
reaches the target, the gunner must stay in place and control it. This period can be extended
up to 18 seconds at the maximum range. In general use, no more than two launches
are made from the same position. Also two teams are deployed simultaneously in a standard
anti-tank mission. When the first team changes its position, the second team provides protection
for it. The first generations of the Milan missiles
had thorium at the tail section to produce the infra-red signature which is used for
tracking it. This brought the risk of radiation emission. The use of thorium in the missiles
manufactured after 1999 was abandoned. The Milan was preferred nearly 40 countries.
Also many guerilla groups and militia forces has being used the system.
The Milan was produced by India, Spain and the UK under license.
The missiles fired from the Milan system show different characteristics depending on the
model. The first two versions are most widely used ones and their length is 0.77 meters
and the wingspan is 0.27 meters. The missile diameter of the Milan 1 is 103 millimeters.
The diameter of the others is 115 millimeters. While the Milan 1 missile weighs 16.7 kilograms,
the missile weight of the Milan 2 and Milan ER is 12 kilograms. The total system weight
is 16.7, 28 and 21 kilograms for these three models, respectively. Approaching its target
with a speed of 200 meters per second, the maximum effective range of the missile is
2,000 meters. The Milan ER model can reach the range of 3,000 meters. Depends on the
models, the Milan can pierce steel armour between 650 and 1,000 millimeters thick. There
is also a version called the Milan 2T with tandem warhead effective against the explosive
reactive armour. Although originally developed for infantry
use, many countries have mounted the Milan on the vehicle.
The British Army even used a special armoured anti-tank guided missile vehicle model called
the FV120 Spartan MCT. German Marder armoured infantry fighting vehicles
were occasionally equipped with the Milan, depending on the mission definition.
It is still possible to see this system on many VBLs.
Cyprus continues to use EE-3 Jararaca 4x4 armoured wheeled vehicles with the Milan.
The Milan has a lot of success on the battlefield. Let's take a look at some of these.
The first recorded combat use of the Milan took place on June 6, 1976.
At the time when Lebanon was experiencing civil war, the Syrian Army entered Beirut
to intervene. During this intervention, some Lebanese units
managed to knocked several Syrian T-55s and T-62s out by using the Milan.
Also Lebanese Phalanges used the system against sniper positions in buildings along the Green
Line. Similiarly the Syrian Army launched the Milan
against Christian fortifications in Mount Lebanon.
These were the first examples which show the Milan is not only an anti-tank weapon, but
also portable infantry guided artillery system. Yet what happened in Lebanon remained an exception
and did not transform the concept of use of guided anti-tank missiles in the West. The
real transformation took place after 1982. During the Falklands War, necessities forced
British soldiers to find out-of-the-box solutions. Artillery support was vital against the Argentine
units deployed in the pillboxes and mountains caves.
But the British forces could not properly positioned the 105mm L118 guns on the wet
ground of the island. They needed helicopters to redeployment.
However, the Atlantic Conveyor was sunk on May 25, 1982 with the Chinooks, which were
of great importance for the operation. For this reason, the L118s were slow to follow
the British land operations. So, the British troops started using their Milans as portable
infantry artillery system with high hit rate. During the war, the Argentine snipers had
modern US rifles which has 800 metres effective range.
However the British snipers still used Model 82 which has effective range of only 400 metres.
So, the British forces started to fire the Milan against the Argentine sniper positions
from a distance of 2,000 metres. After the Falklands War, all armies of the
world accepted the guided anti-tank missiles as the personal guided artilley support system
of the infantry. Among the weapons given by the USA to the
Mujahideen who resisted the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in the 1980s was the Milan
which is easy to use and transport but highly effective.
An important use of the Milan also took place in Africa in the 1980s.
Libya, which had been directly involved in the civil war in Chad since 1978, had a big
and powerful army. However, the French-backed Chad troops managed
to prevail by using new tactics in this conflict called the Toyota War. According to new tactic,
one of Chadian Toyota convoys was rapidly rotating around the Libyan armoured units.
The turrets of the tanks and armoured vehicles could not track these high speed pick-ups.
Although the 14.5mm and 23mm guns mounted on the Toyotas were ineffective against tanks,
Libyan soldiers, who were constantly under fire, were panicking in the face of the enemy
that they could not neutralize. But the real disaster for them started at this very moment
when the second Toyota group equipped with the Milan, was lauching its offensive from
2,000 metres. By using this tactic, the Chadian troops captured
the heavily guarded Ouadi Doum Air Base, in 1986.
In 1987, at the Battle of Fada, they also managed to knock nearly 100 Libyan tanks and
more than 30 armoured vehicles out. This was an astonish victory for Chad which lost only
18 soldiers and three vehicles. In the same year, during another raid, Chadian
troops destroyed more than 60 Libyan T-55 and T-62s by using the Milan.
During the Iran Iraq War, Iraqi troops frequently used the Milan against Iranian tanks as well
as machine gun nests, entrenched positions, and bunkers.
In some sources claim that two low flying Iranian AH-1 Cobra helicopters were shot down
by the Milan. Many people think that the most effective
missile system used against Iraqi SCUD tactical ballistic missiles during the 1991 Gulf War
was the high-tech and expensive Patriot. However, there was a simpler and more cost-effective
system for this task; the Milan. In the early stages of the war, the E-8 Joint
STARS aircraft were used to detect Saddam's mobile SCUD batteries. Yet, this method was
not very efficient. First of all it was too hard to locate mobile
launchers spread throughout the vast desert in western Iraq.
Also the infrared sensors of the E-8 were abling to detect the heat signature after
the firing of SCUDs. So, the US and British special forces crossed
the border to locate mobile launchers. Especially, the SAS units driving Land Rovers were particularly
successful to acquire many targets. At first, these units were sending the coordinates of
the target they had detected to the Tactical Operation Command Center, avoiding engagement.
Iraqi SCUDs were being destroyed by air strikes. However, in some cases it took 50 minutes
for the combat aircraft to reach the area. For this reason, SAS commandos, using the
opportunity they seized, began attacking mobile batteries with their Milans mounted on their
Land Rovers without waiting for an air strike. The result was quite satisfactory. By ambushes
and hit-run attacks, the British managed to destroy many SCUD batteries.
Of course, the Milan successfully performed its primary anti-tank mission in the 1991
Gulf War. The French used this missile to destroy at least six Iraqi T-55s.
The Milan proved itself in the Bosnian War as well.
The garrison of the French contingent stationed in this country had constantly being harassed
by Serbian M-84 tanks. On September 2, 1995, the French decided to
use the Milan to put an end to this harassment. The Serbian tank at a distance of 1,870 meters
was destroyed. The explosion caused the M-84's turret to be blown off the hull and into the
air. After that, the Serbs never came closer than 2,000 meters to any units equipped with
the Milan. Some sources claim that in 2016, two Turkish
M60 tanks were destroyed in Syria by the Milan fired by the Kurdish forces. However, the
missiles used in this incident are more likely to be the Kornet-E.
During the 2017 Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, the Peshmerga destroyed an Iraqi M1 Abrams
tank and several Humvees using the Milan. For nearly half a century, the Milan has been
writing its own saga. Although today it has begun to be replaced with the new generation
of guided anti-tank missiles, it is still one of the most reliable companions of the
infantry and one of the worst nightmares of tanks. Many armies are not considering giving
up on it yet. The Milan, which deserves to be a true legend with both its successes and
its important role in changing the concepts, seems to add new pages to its own saga for
a while. Thanks for watching our new video. And please
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