December 4, 2010: France has ordered another 7,000 AT4CS anti-tank rockets from Swedish manufacturer Saab Bofors. France has been using the AT4CS for a decade, and has been quite pleased with it. The 6.8 kg (15 pound) weapon has a range of 300 meters and can destroy bunkers as well. Many have been used in Afghanistan.
The AT4CS can be fired from inside a building (the CS stands for "Confined Spaces") and that capability caused the U.S. Special Operations Command and the U.S. Marine Corps to buy many of these missiles as well. The AT4CS is a one shot system that can use night vision equipment, which is reused. The 1.8 kg (four pound) rocket is fired from a one meter (40 inches) long launcher. The maximum range of the rocket is about two kilometers. The warhead doesn't arm until the rocket is about ten meters from the launcher. It takes about one second for the rocket to go 250 meters. The warhead can penetrate about 500mm (nearly 20 inches) of steel armor. Thus the AT4 is very useful against the thick walled compounds commonly found all over Afghanistan.
