Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Mistral is a surface-to-air missile manufactured by the European firm MBDA. Table of contents 1 History 2 Variants 3 Inventory 4 Combat Performance 5 Characteristics 6 See also 7 External link History Development of the SATCP (Sol Air a Tres Court Portee), the French portable missile later to become the Mistral, began in 1974. Mistral was first deployed in 1988. Variants The basic Mistral missile is used with a man-portable launch unit. There are also launch units that allow the missile to be fired from armoured vehicles, ships or helicopters (such as the Gazelle or Tiger). Inventory Mistral entered series production in 1989 and is now deployed by 37 armed forces of 25 countries. Over 16,000 missiles have been ordered. Combat Performance Characteristics Primary Function: short-range man portable surface-to-air missile Contractor: MBDA Power Plant: Length: 1.86 m Diameter: 9 cm Wing Span: 18 cm Launch Weight: 18.7 kg Speed: 800 m/s, approx Mach 2.5 Warhead: 3 kg HE Range: 5 - 6 km (4 km effective against helicopters) Altitude: 3 km Fuzes: laser proximity Guidance system: all-aspect infra-red, fire and forget Unit Cost: ? Date Deployed: 1988 Users: in use or ordered by 25 countries including France, Hungary, Oman See also External link MBDA's Mistral page This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.