AGM-114 Missile For Frances New Tiger Fleet
Interceptor Shield Report
Nathan J Hunt
June 19, 2007
On June the 18th Lockheed Martin released a press statement that the government of France has selected to acquire the Hellfire II missile system that is produced by its corporation for their fleet of 40 HAD Tiger Eurocopters that France is currently deploying.
Work has begun on modifying a HAD Tiger Helicopter at the European Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation facility in Marignane, France They are working alongside Lockheed Martin in preparing the HAD Tiger for testing with the new Missiles. Work should be completed before winter with ground tests of the missile planned in October of this year and an air test in March of 2008.
The AGM-114 HellFire Missile has proven to be extensively versatile, AGM-114 armed UAV Predator drones are used by the United States in the war on terror, an effective combination that has seen success in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
A fact that leads to the speculation, France could possibly chose to use some of the planned to be acquired AGM-114 missiles to build their own armed UAV fleet.
News Source:
LockHeedMartin
