The A-Darter, short for Agile Darter and designated V3E, is a short-range air-to-air missile with an infrared homing seeker, developed jointly by the South African firm Denel Dynamics, formerly Kentron, and Brazilian partners Mectron (now SIATT), Avibras and Opto Eletronica. The missile has a wingless airframe and a thrust vectoring control system that lets it turn at up to 100g. Its seeker can be slaved to a pilot helmet-mounted display so that the pilot can attack a target by simply looking at it, and the weapon can engage targets behind the launching aircraft. It is intended to equip the South African Air Force Gripen C/D and Hawk 120 and the Brazilian Air Force A-1M, F-5BR and Gripen E/F. Development began in 1995 and was slowed by funding problems and Denel liquidity trouble, so that no combat-capable missiles had been produced by November 2022. South Africa ordered 41 operational, 21 trainer and 8 practice missiles in 2015, and practice rounds began to be delivered in October 2024.
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Source A-Darter (source article)
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Also in Business Atlas: the manufacturer of this subject.
Source A-Darter (source article)Production [manufacturer]Quote, Production [manufacturer]
SAAF ordered 41 operational missiles, 21 trainer variants and 8 practice variants from Denel Dynamics
Sources
1. A-Darter (source article)
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air-to-air missile
Production
no combat capable missiles had been produced as of November 2022
Production [manufacturer]
SAAF ordered 41 operational missiles, 21 trainer variants and 8 practice variants from Denel Dynamics
Operated By: South African Air Force, Production [operated-by]
Denel has begun delivering practice missiles to the South African Air Force
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