Euromissile Roland

Launch of a Roland missile

The Roland is a short-range surface-to-air missile developed by the missile division of the French companies Aérospatiale and Matra (now part of MBDA/EADS). It is a semi-automatic or automatic command weapon (SACLOS/CLOS) by electro-optical or radar guidance, capable of shooting down targets flying at mach 1.5 or less at distances between 500 m and 8 km and altitudes between 10 and 6,000 m.

The first version was the Roland I, which entered service with the French Army in 1977. Versions II (1981), III (1988) and Roland NDV were later developed with the Roland VT.1 missile (2003).

The missile and its aiming system are usually mounted on armored or semi-armored vehicles, although there is a static version. Other than target detection and acquisition, it requires no pre-launch preparation and can therefore be deployed or deployed in less than 3 minutes.

A license was granted to produce it in the United States, but the program was terminated in 1981. Some 650 launcher systems with more than 25,000 missiles have been sold worldwide. He received his baptism of fire on the Argentine side during the Falklands War, shooting down a Sea Harrier and claiming a hit on a bomb dropped by a Sea Harrier from a high altitude.

Carriers

The Roland system has been installed on various platforms including:

on caterpillars

• AMX 30
• Marder

on wheels

• ACMAT 6x6
• MAN 6x6, 8x8

Features

Operators

AMX-30 Roland anti-air system.

Argentina

Brazil

ChileChile

Spain

• Land Army of Spain. Mounted in AMX-30 Roland vehicles, it is an anti-aircraft system based on the AMX-30 combat chassis equipped with Roland missile launchers. The Earth Army has 18 AMX-30 Roland vehicles, part of them of the all-time version, in which the follow-up is made by radar, and the rest of the lighter, cheaper but also more limited version, in which it is performed by an electrooptic team.

With the retirement of the AMX-30 barge in the late 1990s they were mounted on M-113 tracked chassis. Finally in 2015 the system has been discharged from the Army

United States

France

Germany

Retired, replaced by LFK NG.

Iraq

Nigeria

Qatar

Slovenia

Venezuela

In reserve, replaced by S-125 Neva/Pechora systems

Operations in the Falklands War

05/01/1982:

• Two enemy planes, one of them with ROLAND missile at 07:40 hours, the other with the 35 mm OERLIKON canyon at 08:25 hours, are shot down by anti-aircraft artillery.
  • (Source Argentina: Official Report of the Argentine Army, Chapter V, Section I, item 5.001 “b”)

05/25/1982:

• Two GR3 Harriers are shot down at 10:35 hours, one with ROLAND missile and another with 35 mm cannon. An ejection is observed.
  • (Source Argentina: The Action of the Air Force in Malvinas. Official report. Volume VI, volume I. Page 403)

06/01/1982:

• The Sea Harrier plate XZ456 of the 801 squadron based on the HMS Invincible was shot down south of Puerto Argentino by a Roland missile. Flt Lt Mortimer RAF ejected and then rescued from the sea.
  • (British Source: Sea Harriers Production List)

Speaking of the shooting down of the Harrier XZ 450 piloted by Lt. Nick Taylor, by 35mm cannon fire on May 4, the military governor of the Falkland Islands, Brigadier General Mario Benjamín Menéndez would say:

At that time the English actually recognized the demolition quickly and, instead, those two planes that we shot down the first day and that fell to the sea were not recognized until after a while, but said they had probably been lost and could not return to the aircraft carrier for the bad weather conditions.

The commander of 801 Squadron Lieutenant Commander Nigel Ward would, in turn, give contradictory versions about the loss of the XZ452 and 453 registration aircraft, which according to the British version were lost on May 6. He would first say that he was sitting in his plane seat when he heard the bad news:

I was on the deck of my aircraft when I heard the news and I invented a song immediately, on my knee pad, thinking about the guys in the control room were going to be very upset. I came back and said, "Listen, boys, I know it's sad, but how does this sound?"

Years later, he would say he was asleep when he heard about the losses:

I was in my cabin, asleep after finishing my season on alert at night, when the phone ringed. It was Morts. He was in the control room. "Jefe, you better get here... we have two delayed aircraft. I didn't want to believe what I heard. How long?"