South African State-owned missile and unmanned air vehicle company Denel Dynamics announced on Monday that the Al Tariq precision-guided munition (PGM), developed by Tawazun Dynamics, its joint venture with United Arab Emirates company Tawazun Holdings, had successfully executed a difficult mission profile during a flight test evaluation.

This test saw the weapon used against a laser-designated target. It effectively scored a direct hit (the “miss distance” was less than half-a-metre).

In the test, the Al Tariq was launched off the track of the target and was programmed to, during its terminal phase, enter the target area from a different direction. “This implies the missile had to perform a dog-leg manoeuvre and the flight path had to be calculated dynamically ‘on the fly’,” said Al Tariq programme manager Coenie Loock. This mission profile was selected to provide a thorough test of the PGM.

Tawazun Dynamics describes the Al Tariq as “a family of strap-on bomb kit systems, used on [US-standard] MK81, MK82 and MK83 bombs. Al-Tariq provides the user with all-weather, day or night operational capabilities, utilizing GPS/INS [Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System] guidance. Increased targeting accuracy can be achieved by using an Imaging Infrared with complete Automatic Target Recognition capability, or a semi-active laser seeker.”

Denel Dynamics reported that the standard version of the PGM had a range of 40 km but that the long-range version had a range of 100 km. The accuracy of the weapon is independent of its range. It can also be programmed to attack targets from specified directions and using different dive angles.

“This is a great result for Denel Dynamics and reflects the success of the joint venture announcement in September 2012 with Abu Dhabi-based Tawazun Holdings, for the development, manufacturing, assembly and integration of precision-guided weapon systems in Tawazun Dyamics, opening up the international gateway to potential new opportunities,” said the South African company in a press release. Denel Dynamics has a 49% share in Tawazun Dynamics.