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Martel
Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Martel

Air-to-surface missiles

Country of origin United Kingdom
ManufacturerHawker Siddeley, Matra
The Martel is an Anglo-French missile. The name Martel is a contraction of Missile, Anti-Radiation, Television, referring to the guidance options. There are two variants, the passive radar anti-radiation missile version, AS.37, and the television guided anti-ship missile, AJ 168.

The aircraft that used these missiles were the Blackburn Buccaneer (up to three TV or four ARM variant), the SEPECAT Jaguar (two), the Mirage III/F1 (one or two), and the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod (at least one). The Martel was suited to anti-ship attack with its long range and heavy warhead. There was not, at the time, a small radar homing missile like the AGM-84 Harpoon with an active radar, so the only viable solution was a video or ARM sensor. With a relatively long range, a heavy payload, and a subsonic speed, this missile compares more to an anti-ship weapon like the Exocet or the AS.34 Kormoran than an anti-radar missile. It weighs three times as much as the AGM-45 Shrike, with half the speed but much greater range and explosive power.
It was possible to adapt the Martel ARM to be used against different wavelength radars. It was an improvement compared to the early AGM-78 Standard ARM missiles, that had...

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Specifications

Introduced
1970
Entered service
1970

Countries that use it (2)

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Model data: Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Figures can differ between versions of the same weapon. · Q297151