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Saab Global

Saab reaches new milestone with the delivery of its 10,000th NLAW weapon

The Saab Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon, NLAW, is a light, ‘fire & forget’, top-attack missile system that provides a single soldier with the capability of knocking out any heavily-protected armoured vehicle, including main battle tanks, in a single shot. NLAW can be deployed in any environment including complex terrain such as built up areas. NLAW has a major advantage over rival systems with its Predicted Line of Sight capability, allowing the soldier to engage targets without having to judge and compensate for external factors such as target speed, wind and range.

As design authority, Saab Dynamics has been leading a team of more than 20 British, Swedish and other international companies through the project definition and design phase and then into qualification and production. NLAW meets the requirements for a next generation light anti-tank weapon, from demanding customers like the UK, Sweden and Finland.

Thales UK was selected by Saab early in the project as production partner and given responsibility for final assembly. It now leads a successful UK production team. Recently the 10,000th NLAW weapon was delivered from the Thales manufacturing site in Belfast and production is continuing according to plan.

Weapon components are produced by sub contractors in UK and Sweden, although more than 80% of weapon value is produced by British industry, creating valuable employment in the UK as promised by Saab when the contract was awarded.

The weapon has now been deployed to the regiments and training is ongoing. Customer feedback has shown that the training system has proven to be very effective and easy to use, while the NLAW system has been brought into service smoothly and made operational within budget.

Discussions are on-going with potential new customers where NLAW is expected to be introduced in a near future.