Upper right: AT4 single-use disposable anti-tank launcher.
Lower left: Solothurn S-18/100 semi-automatic anti-tank rifle.
Lower right: 9M133 Kornet semi-disposable anti-tank missile system.
Man-portable anti-tank systems (MANPATS or MPATS) are traditionally portable shoulder-launched projectile systems firing heavy shell-type projectiles (although throwing and lunge weapons have existed), typically designed to combat protected targets, such as armoured vehicles, field fortifications and at times even low-flying aircraft (especially helicopters).
MPATS-launchers can be either unguided or guided weapons and generally fall into three distinct categories:
- Disposable systems, consisting of a small pre-loaded, single-shot launch tube meant to be disposed after firing, operated by one soldier. Examples include: Panzerfaust 1, M72 LAW, Miniman, AT4, FGM-148 Javelin, NLAW, etc.
- Reusable systems, consisting of a reloadable firing system onto/into which a rocket or cartridge is loaded, operated by one or two soldiers. Examples include: bazooka, Panzerschreck, Carl Gustaf 8.4 cm recoilless rifle, RPG-7, Panzerfaust 2, etc.
- Semi-disposable systems, where the launcher is manufactured pre-loaded and issued as a single unit of ammunition meant to be launched from a reusable firing and sighting device and discarded after one use. Examples include, Bofors Bantam, BGM-71 TOW, 9M113 Konkurs, Panzerfaust 3, 9M133 Kornet, etc.
Portable anti-tank systems initially appeared in the form of heavy rifles – so called anti-tank rifles – during the First World War and interwar period. These soon got replaced with recoilless systems with the application of the shaped charge explosive projectiles during the Second World War.[1] The development of practical rocketry and recoilless cartridges occasioned by World War II provided a means of delivering such an explosive from a shoulder-launched weapon, leading to a new type of weapon family which combined portability with effectiveness against armoured vehicles, fortifications, and buildings. Famous early examples includes the American bazooka-family of reloadable rocket launchers, the German Panzerfaust single-shot disposable anti-tank launcher and the post war Swedish Carl Gustaf 8.4 cm recoilless rifle. The war also saw the use of a variety of unconventional MPAT-systems, such as the German Hafthohlladung magnet mine, the Japanese Shitotsubakurai lunge mine, the British sticky bomb hand grenade and PIAT direct fire spigot mortar.