KOLOMNA, Moscow Region. Aug 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The local Machine-Building Design Bureau (KBM) will complete its work to extend the service life of Malyutka anti-tank rocket systems before the end of the year, Vladimir Yunker, deputy chief of KBM's design sections, said on Thursday.
The extension of Malyutka's service life "will enable the countries that have the system in their inventory to save a lot of money by doing without procurement of analogous new systems," Yunker told Interfax-Military News Agency.
More than 300,000 Malyutka systems have been produced and supplied to the Russian Armed Forces and armies of foreign nations, he said.
The Malyutka anti-tank rocket system is intended for hitting armored objects, engineering constructions and other targets. The rocket has a caliber of 125mm, length of 871mm and weight of 11.3kg, including warhead of 2.6kg. The system is capable of piercing the armor up to 460mm thick. The rocket's range is three kilometers.
Malyutka's technical certification and service life extension imply a large volume of work that is done at the customers' requests, Yunker said. A commission decides whether to extend the service life with supplies of component parts or without them in each specific case taking into account the system's terms and conditions of operation. The commission also determines whether it will be safe to continue the system's storage. The compliance of each Malyutka batch with standard specifications is checked through bench or field tests.
In addition to service life extension, KBM is ready to upgrade Malyutka systems to the Malyutka-2 level, Yunker said.