Mac Jee acquires rights to MAR-1, MAA-1B missiles

The Brazilian MAR-1 anti-radiation missile. Mac Jee Defesa has acquired the IP rights for the missile. (Victor Barreira)

Brazilian ammunition specialist Mac Jee Defesa has acquired the intellectual property (IP) rights and the engineering projects of the MAR-1 (Míssil Anti-Radiação) anti-radiation missile and MAA-1B Piranha (Míssil Ar-Ar) short-range air-to-air missile.

The company announced the acquisition on 18 November without providing further details. It also indicated that it would soon announce two other unspecified programmes.

Mac Jee had not responded to Janes queries at the time of publication.

Mac Jee did not specify when and from whom it acquired the IP rights of the guided missiles. It may have been from the Department of Science and Aerospace Technology (DCTA) of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), Janes understands.

The air-launched MAR-1 and MAA-1B missiles were originally developed by Mectron Engenharia Indústria e Comércio and the DCTA. Plans to launch the serial production of both missiles were cancelled when Mectron ceased activities around 2016.

Mac Jee has renamed the MAR-1 and MAA-1B Piranha missiles as the ARM (Anti-Radiation Missile) and SRAAM (Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile), respectively.

The ARM measures 3.9 m in length and 230 mm in diameter, with a wingspan of 800 mm. The missile weighs 272 kg, including a 90 kg warhead, and has a 70 km range.

It is equipped with a fire-and-forget seeker, global navigation satellite services/inertial navigation system (GNSS/INS) combined navigation kit and an electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) capability.

The SRAAM is 2.9 m long, 166 mm in diameter, with a 466 mm wingspan, a 7 kg warhead, and total weight of 93 kg. It features a dual-band imaging infrared (IIR) seeker, multimode ECCM suite, and INS.