Marder infantry fighting vehicle

The Flugabwehrpanzer Roland or marder roland (abbreviated FlaRakPz-1) was a variant of the marder infantry fighting vehicle, modified to carry roland short range ground-air missiles. The latter was a successful Franco-German missile which appeared in 1977 at the same time the first prototype of the Vehicle prototype was completed.

The Marder Roland uses the Roland 2 type all weather missile system. The launcher has two missiles arms ready to fire when underway in operations. Eight more missiles are carried inside the rear compartment. Targets are acquired via rotating search radar (16.5 km range) providing updates every second (full 360). The Roland missiles use radio command guidance and within, two engagement modes switchable even after launch:-Manual guidance using an optical tracker-Automated guidance via the fire control radar.In addition the vehicle is given an IFF system and it is setup to alco combat helicopters and low altitude jet aircraft. The Roland 2 missile is limited to Mach 1.2 and 5.5 km cailing, its range starting as short as 500 m, up to 6.3 km. Despite having two arms, only one target can be engaged at a time. It means that the vehicle must wait before launching another missile.

There is a single channel guidance and single operator. The relaunch process is automatic, performed when the arms are lowered, horizontal, over the reloading traps, allowing two new tubes to be attached on the arms after the empty tubes had been jettisoned. This way the crew stay protected for all the engagement. For better accuracy the vehicle also was stopped when launching its missiles.