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Troop trial of TRIGAT LR begun successfully

Unterschleissheim, 13 January 2003

At the beginning of December 2002, an early important success was recorded within the framework of the troop trial for TRIGAT LR – the main armament of the Tiger helicopter – on the Ile du Levant in France. The missile was successfully released from the Panther test helicopter and guided to the target. The seeker head and warhead operated perfectly. The shot was fired by a French gunner in forward flight at a target situated at 2,300 metres distance. The T 72 was equipped with reactive armour and thermal plates to represent a realistic target signature.

"This trial confirms the achievements of the TRIGAT LR programme in 2002: the successfully completed qualification tests for the firing post electronics and the TRIGAT LR ammunition. We are very pleased about this. I want to thank all the members of the team which supported the troop trial for their total commitment," said Dr. Axel Widera, Vice President Programmes at EADS/LFK.

TRIGAT LR has been jointly developed by Germany, France and Great Britain. On the industrial side, MBDA and EADS/LFK are working together under the roof of EMDG, which has its registered offices in Paris.

The German Army intends to procure the TRIGAT LR guided missile for 80 of its support helicopters. Only through using this ammunition will the Tiger be able to demonstrate its required operational performance. Negotiations on the contract between EADS/LFK and BGT on the one side and the Federal Office for Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) on the other were completed at the end of 2002, which is an important prerequisite for the parliamentary decision to be made in 2003 on the start of series production of TRIGAT LR guided missiles.

TRIGAT LR – being a fire-and-forget system – allows the helicopter to quit its position immediately after firing the missile and thus expose itself only as briefly as necessary to the threat of retaliation by anti-aircraft fire. The infrared seeker head locks on to the target before firing (LOBL, lock-on before launch) once the optical system integrated into the Tiger's mast sight has detected and identified it. The missile navigates to the target autonomously, without requiring further influencing control from the gunner.

In this way, TRIGAT LR is the only real fire-and-forget system in the world which reliably enables the prevention of collateral damage. Thanks to the 10µ-technology employed in both the gunner's sight and the seeker head as well as the harmonisation of the sight image with the seeker head image before firing, unambiguous target identification and target designation are possible over the whole range spectrum.

The extraordinary capabilities of the tandem warhead, which have been proven in extensive tests, allow the engagement of a wide variety of targets. including not only tanks with state-of-the-art reactive armour, but also helicopters, bunkers, fortifications or combat posts in shelters.

The 1999 contracts for the procurement of the Tiger helicopter to cover French and German requirements also include the procurement and integration of the ATA firing post. Both HOT and TRIGAT LR missiles can be fired from this. For this reason, following the successful qualification tests last year EUROCOPTER awarded a series production contract for various firing post assemblies to EADS/LFK. EADS/LFK commenced their deliveries of production equipment on schedule in January 2002.

EADS is a global aerospace and defence leader, and the world's second largest in terms of revenues. EADS maintains a workforce of more than 100,000 and is a market leader in defence technologies, commercial aircraft, helicopters, space, military transport and combat aircraft, as well as related services. Its family of leading brands includes the commercial aircraft maker Airbus; Eurocopter, the world's largest helicopter manufacturer; Astrium, the space company and MBDA, the world's second largest missile company. EADS is also the biggest partner in the Eurofighter consortium and heads the A400M military transport aircraft programme. EADS has more than 70 facilities in France, Germany, Spain and the UK. It is active in markets around the world, including the U.S. and Asia.

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