MBB Armbrust (Crossbow)

History

In the 1980s, the threat of the influx of Soviet armaments into Western Europe was no less than the years following the end of World War II (1939-1945). The ground zero for the new Cold War conflict was Germany, which at this point in the postwar period was divided into Eastern (Soviet-dominated) and Western territories.

One of the many challenges facing NATO war planners is to equip their regular infantry with a portable solution for destroying tanks.

West Germany's Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm (MBB) began work on a new portable shoulder-fired rocket launcher to become the "crossbow" anti-tank and self-defense weapon system. Its design is largely conventionala launch tube with integrated optics is the core of the weaponand fires an unguided, tail-stabilized 67mm rocket. The overall weight is 6.3kg and the overall length is 850mm. Designed as a recoilless weapon, the firing action of the crossbow relies on a pair of pistons to help control the recoil of the fired rocket.

In this way, the mass of the projectile matches the mass of the launcher - the front piston hits the projectile fired from the end of the muzzle, the rear piston ejects an anti-mass cluster of broken plastic/metal rods from the rear of the barrel - counteracted the recoil. This unique action allows the crossbow to be fired from within the confines of a building (urban warfare) while emitting very little smoke and noticeable noise that helps hide firefighters in ambush.

The range of the weapon needs to be at least 3.5 feet. The muzzle velocity is 690 feet per second, the effective range is up to 980 feet, and the maximum range is up to 4,900 feet. The warhead penetrates up to 300mm of steel armor, and the projectile also has some value to the structure.

An inherently one-shot design where the launcher can only fire a single shot, where the infantry must carry multiple such weapons depending on the expected enemy armor.

The general layout of the weapon is largely conventional, as is the case with portable rocket launchers. The launch tube forms the bulk of the design, with the optics offset to the left of the launch tube. The launcher was then placed on the right shoulder before firing. The aiming device is illuminated for low-light/night action, and the action of the launcher is controlled by a trigger-based pistol-grip-style device. The handle assembly is hingedly folded next to the bottom of the launch tube to keep it compact while going, and a shoulder strap further enhances portability.

For quick identification, the muzzle end of the tube has a distinct cutout.

The crossbow received significant combat service during its period as a front-line solution - although it did not appear in Western Europe during the so-called Soviet invasion. It was fought during the Cambodian Vietnam War (1977-1991), the Croatian War of Independence (1991-1995), the Slovenian War of Independence/Ten-Day War (1991), the Cambodia-Thailand Border Conflict (2008-2011) and - most recently - Lahad Datu Standoff (2013). The manufacturing rights were eventually sold to Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS) and the product came under ST Kinetics' revised CIS brand label. The operators are Albania, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, Indonesia, Kosovo, Philippines, Singapore and Slovenia.

Variants include Crossbow AT, Crossbow AP, Crossbow Ub and Crossbow SC.

The successor to the crossbow appeared in 2000 with the 90mm MATADOR (Portable, Anti-Tank, Anti-DOoR). This weapon became a joint German-Israeli-Singapore design and is described in detail elsewhere on this page.

Specification

Roles

Dimensions

PERFORMANCE

VARIANTS