A Turkish-made MAM-L missile was launched in the Eastern Mediterranean as part of the exercise “Blue Homeland 2021”. The missile was launched during the last day of the exercise yesterday, according to the Turkish Ministry of Defence’s post on Twitter. 

According to CNA, “a Bayraktar TB-2 unmanned aerial vehicle of the navy successfully hit a surface target n the Eastern Mediterranean using a high precision laser-guided MAM-L missile, which is being developed/built in Turkey” the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated.

Also read: Armenia – Azerbaijan | Extensive use of UAVs and the first military use of S-300 – VIDEO

The MAM family of missiles (Mini Akıllı Mühimmat, Smart Micro Munition) belongs to the category of smart, laser-guided ammunition manufactured by the Turkish company ROKETSAN. MAMs have been developed for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), small light aircraft and air-to-ground missions for low payload air platforms. 

ROKETSAN claims that MAM missiles can engage fixed and moving targets with high precision, something that has been proven in the operations “Euphrates Shield” (2016), “Olive Branch” (2018), “Peace Spring” (2019), “Spring Shield” (2020) in Syria, Operation “Tiger Claws” (2019–2020) in Northern Iraq, in the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020 and the National Accord Government counterattack in Libya in 2020, against the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar who besieged Tripoli. 

Video from operations in Nagorno-Karabakh

The MAM missile variants are two, the MAM-C and the MAM-L. The MAM-C has a diameter of 70mm and a length of 970mm. It weighs 6.5 kg and has a range of 8 km. It has a multi-purpose warhead (incendiary, armour piercing and blast fragmentation) or high-explosive blast fragmentation. 

The MAM-L rocket is clearly larger with a diameter of 160mm. It is 1 meter long and weighs 22 kg. It has a range of 15 km and has an inertial navigation system (INS) and a GPS system. It has an ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) penetration head, high-explosive blast fragmentation and a thermobaric head (it uses oxygen from the surrounding area to cause an explosion at a high temperature). 

The MAM missile family has been integrated into unmanned aerial vehicles such as the Bayraktar Tactical UAS (TB1), Bayraktar TB2, Bayraktar Akıncı, TAI Aksungur, TAI Anka, Vestel Karayel and the TAI Hürkuş trainer aircraft. 

So far, the MAM missiles are in the arsenals of Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia. 

As a result, and with the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh having proven that the criteria were met, the use of MAM munitions by the Bayraktar TB2 caused enormous losses in personnel, T-72 tanks, BMP-1/2 IFVs, 2K11 Krug, 9K33 Osa, 2K12 Kub and 9K35 Strela-10 Air Defence Systems. We also witnessed via videos the destruction from Bayraktar TB2s, or self-propelled and towed artillery systems, multiple rocket launchers, radar systems and hundreds of military vehicles, carrying personnel or ammunition. 

In the following article you can see the magnitude of the catastrophe of the Armenian and the Artsakh forces in numbers.

Also read:  Nagorno – Karabakh | The aftermath in numbers – The losses on the battlefield