Denel Mokopa IIR ATGM - Infrared Mamba

Surbaissemaxxing · April 18, 2025, 11:30pm

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Suggestion No.75

G’day lads. I want to suggest a different variant of the Mokopa, featuring a IIR seeker for it, while retaining the same performance :)

(Note: The IIR and mmW variant have the same shape, and can visually not be identified, hence the same images as the mmW variant suggestion)

Description:

Spoiler

The Mokopa, formerly known as ZT-6, is a South African air-to-ground ATGM, developed by Denel Dynamics. It uses a HEAT warhead capable of penetrating 1350mm of rolled homogeneous armor after ERA (Tandem). The missile is normally equipped with semi-active laser guidance, requiring a laser designator for target illumination, though alternative guidance packages thanks to its modular design include two-color imaging infrared seekers (IIR) and millimeter-wave radar (mmW). South African Air Force’s Rooivalk attack helicopters were supposed to be the only carrier of the weapon, but it has also been tested on ground vehicles and ships, as well as slow aircraft. This suggestion focuses on the IIR, which was tested and mounted on. It can be identified by having a more “rounder” seeker compared to the laser guided Mokopa.

History:

Spoiler

The Mokopa anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) was developed by Denel Dynamics in South Africa as a response to the country’s need for an advanced air-to-ground missile system as a Hellfire alternative. Full-scale development began in November 1996, largely due to a long-term arms embargo that prevented South Africa from acquiring the American AGM-114 Hellfire missile. The first air-launched tests took place in 1999, where they got launched from a Rooivalk attack helicopter, followed by the first guided tests of all variants, aside of the (still) planned thermobaric variant in 2000.

The missile was in its final stages of development by 2005 and was planned to being integrated onto the South African Air Force’s Rooivalk helicopters, however, budgetary constraints led to delays in full operational deployment. The IIR/mmW variant of the Mokopa were shown a lot during the 2000’s until 2010’s, however stopped showing as the Rooivalk also was showing up less and less in expos.

Aside from the South African Air Force (SAAF), the only operator is Algeria, who uses laser Mokopas on their Lynx helicopters and on some naval platforms.

Specifications:

Spoiler

The Mokopa anti-tank guided missile has a diameter of 178mm and a length of 1,995mm. It has a launch weight of 49.8kg. The missile is equipped with a tandem High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead capable of penetrating over 1350mm of rolled homogeneous steel armor protected by Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA). The Mokopa has a maximum range of 10km. Something I found out is that the IIR uses the seeker (or a variant) of the A-Darter! This not only matches up the already existing guidance type of the Mokopa IIR (two-color imaging), but also the timeframe, as the Mokopa IIR upgrade came from the time when the A-Darter was being made. It even was mounted once on the Rooivalk, although as a mockup.

Update/Note: There was also a proposal to give the same IIR tech to a SAHV ground launched AAM, which did happen, however it was proceeded to be named Umkhonto IR. Why am I mentioning this? As the missile not only was and is in production, but also because the IIR seeker also matches the specifications of the IIR Mokopa, AND looks very similar to the displayed Mokopa IIR seeker, being round.