SITDEF 2019: New local-made mobile anti-ship missile system developed in Peru.

Peruvian armed forces have developed its own mobile anti-ship missile system based on a 6x6 military MAN truck chassis. The rear part of the truck is fitted with a launcher container that contains one OTOMAT anti-ship missile manufactured in Italy.

New Peruvian-made mobile anti-ship missile system unveiled at SITDEF 2019, defense exhibition in Lima, Peru. May 16, 2019. (Picture source Army Recognition)

According to an officer of the Peruvian armed forces and a video released on the Internet to the official Facebook account of the Peruvian Navy, the new mobile anti-ship missile has already passed a first firing test. The vehicle is divided into three main parts with the crew cabin at the front, a shelter in the middle used to perform all the firing operations and the missile launcher container at the rear.

The Otomat is a short-range subsonic anti-ship and coastal defense missile developed by the Italian company Oto Melara now part of Leonardo, jointly with Matra and now made by MBDA. The Otomat is a short-range anti-ship missile capable of reaching around 180 km at an average speed of 1,000–1,100 kilometers per hour.

The OTOMAT Mk 2 is in service with the Peruvian Navy. This version was introduced in the 1980s, it featured folding wings so that the missile could now fit in a smaller launch box. This reduction in size allowed a doubling in the number of missiles carried, usually from four to eight. Even so, Otomat Mk2 Block II remained bulkier than contemporary versions of Harpoon and Exocet missiles due to its greater diameter and its boosters being fitted to its flanks instead of in the rear.

In terms of technology and operability, this missile presents a very powerful anti-ship weapon and perhaps the most powerful of all modern western anti-ship missiles that have a mid-course data-link.