The MBT LAW (Main Battle Tank and Light Anti-tank Weapon), also known as the NLAW, is a joint British and Swedish short-range fire-and-forget anti-tank missile system. Designed for use by infantry, the MBT LAW is shoulder fired and disposable, firing once before being disposed of. It is currently in use with the military forces of the United Kingdom, Finland, Luxembourg, and Sweden, among others.
In this system, the missile is first launched out of the launcher using a low powered ignition. After the missile travels several meters into flight, its main rocket ignition occurs, which propels the missile from there on, to the target. Guidance is obtained using predicted line of sight (PLOS); for a moving target, the gunner maintains tracking for three seconds, training the missile's guidance electronics to compute the target's angular speed. After launch the missile flies autonomously to the target adjusting the necessary corrections according to the data acquired by the tracking. It is unnecessary for the gunner to consider the range to the target. After launch the missile's position in its trajectory always coincides with the target irrespective of range.
The portable, short range, fire-and-forget system entered service in 2009 as the NLAW (Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon), to replace the British Army's existing LAW 80 system that had in UK's deployment reached its obsolescence, as well as the ILAW (AT4 CS) (Interim Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon), which was in deployment as a substitute for the period in which the MBT-LAW had yet to be deployed. Deliveries began in December 2009. In Finnish Defence Forces the NLAW complements the existing stock of LAW and Apilas rockets and Spike and TOW missiles; LAW is primarily intended against lighter armored vehicles, but a MBT in close range is engaged with both LAW and NLAW. LAW is stocked at Infantry platoon level, NLAW is stocked at Infantry company level. More details
