AM.10, also known as Lasso, is being developed to meet a French Navy requirement for a small anti-ship missile with greater range than AS.12. The new weapon is designed to engage small surface vessels such as patrol boats, landing craft and amphibious assault ships
or hovercraft, and can also be used against land targets. Suitable launch vehicles include slow-flying aircraft and helicopters—
two missiles can be carried on an SA.342 Gazelle and four each on a Lynx, Puma or SA.365 Dauphin—and a choice of ground-based installations is available for coastal defence. The ground firing station comprises a periscopic sight with magnifications' of X3 and X12, semi-automatic command to line-of-sight guidance as used in Hot, and one or more tworound launchers. The helicopter-mounted system is based on
an APX 397 gyro-stabilised sight. The missile can be operated at night by adding a thermal imager to the standard equipment; a suitable set is being developed for Hot and for the proposed Franco-German helicopter gunship. In a helicopter installation the forward-looking infra-red (Flir) sensor is mounted on the stabilised platform carrying the sight mirror and guidance infra-red localiser, with the Flir image injected into the standard eyepiece.
The operator acquires his target with the Flir set to wide field of view, using the normal daytime control stick. He then switches to narrow field for identification, and in twilight he may revert to daytime operation for detailed target examination. The aimer then tracks the target in the normal way and the engagement proceeds in daylight. Lasso uses the same warhead as AS.12 and can be fired from existing launch rails.
