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AS-12 Light Anti-ship Missile
The most prominent of the wire-guided missiles
developed in the 1950s were the Nord (later Aerospatiale) "SS-10"
and "SS-11" missiles, which were small, short-range anti-armor
weapons that could be carried by a soldier or launched from a ground
vehicle or helicopter. These weapons led to a larger and more
powerful derivative, the Nord "AS-12", intended for use against
heavy ground targets or ships. The AS-12 was still smaller than most
modern antishipping missiles, but it was a popular weapon, with over
8,100 produced by the time production ended in 1982.
The AS-12 had stubby cruciform wings mounted in the midsection, and
was powered by a boost-sustain solid rocket engine. The
missile could be fitted with a bulbous hollow-charge armor-piercing
warhead, or a fragmentation warhead.
NORD / AEROSPATIALE AS-12:
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wingspan 65 centimeters 2 feet 2 inches
length 1.87 meters 6 feet 2 inches
total
weight 76 kilograms 168 pounds
warhead weight 28 kilograms 63 pounds
speed 370 KPH 230 MPH / 200 KT
range at
altitude 8 kilometers 5 MI / 4 NMI
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The AS-12 was sold to dozens of countries. It
was not only carried by helicopters, but by fixed-wing maritime
patrol aircraft such as the Breguet Alize and Atlantique, the
Lockheed Neptune, and the BAE Nimrod. A number of AS-12s were fired
by both the British and the Argentines in the Falklands War, and the
British used one to cripple an Argentine submarine.
The
AS-12 is now obsolete due to its short range, low speed, small
warhead, and clumsy guidance system. However, Aerospatiale still saw
a niche for a helicopter-borne light antishipping missile, and in
the 1980s the company introduced a somewhat larger and more
sophisticated follow-on weapon, the "AS-15TT", where "TT" stands for
"Tous Temps (All Weather)".
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