Drafted — not technically validated
Record revision 1 · The French air-to-ground missile that went from joystick to laser guidance.
Real-world weapon as described in public sources. Weights and dimensions change with the fins, fuzes and variant fitted; the data plate names the variants its figures describe, and differences are noted beside the number they affect. The record describes the weapon; it is not a guide to employing it.
AS-30 and AS-30L · AS-30L
- Type
- Short-to-medium-range air-to-ground missile for high-value targets [1]
- Origin
- France
- In service
- 1960 (AS-30); 1988 (AS-30L) [1]
- Weight
- 520 kg (1,146 lb) [1]
- Dimensions
- Length 3.84 m (12.6 ft), AS-30L 3.65 m (12.0 ft); diameter 340 mm (13 in); wingspan 1 m (3.3 ft) [1]
- Warhead or payload
- 240 kg (529 lb) semi-armour-piercing high explosive, impact fuzedFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… with a delay to penetrate 2 m of concrete [1]
- Guidance
- Radio MCLOS on the original AS-30; semi-active laser homing on the AS-30L [1]
- Fuzing
- Delayed armour-piercing impact fuzeFuze GlossaryWeapons: A device that causes the detonation of an explosive charge at the proper time after certain conditions are met. A bomb fuze is mechanical or electrical, and is classed by what sets it off (impact, mechanical time… [1]
- Delivery
- The AS-30L flies to the laser-designated target without the pilot steering it [1]
- Range
- 3–11 km (1.6–5.9 NM) AS-30; 3–12 km (1.6–6.5 NM) AS-30L [1]
- Carried by
- French Jaguar, Mirage 2000D and Rafale [1]
- Iraqi Mirage F1sMirage F1 AircraftA swept-wing French fighter sold to eleven countries and flown in many wars. in the Iran–Iraq War [1]
- Variants
- AS-30: radio command, flown by joystick [1]
- AS-30L: laser-guidedLGW GlossaryWeapons: Laser-guided weapon. A weapon that uses a seeker to detect laser energy reflected from a laser marked/designated target and through signal processing provides guidance commands to a control system, which guides the… [1]
From joystick to laser
The AS-30, a larger version of Nord Aviation’s AS-20, was a precision weapon for high-value targets such as bridges and bunkers. [1] It first used the AS-20’s guidance, in which the pilot tracked the missile by eye and corrected its path with a small joystick while also flying the aircraft, which proved very difficult in practice. [1] The AS-30L replaced that with semi-active laser homing, so the missile flies to the target without the pilot steering it. [1]
In combat
Iraqi Mirage F1sMirage F1 AircraftA swept-wing French fighter sold to eleven countries and flown in many wars. used the AS-30L in the Iran–Iraq War. [1] French Jaguars launched about 60 in Desert Storm and over Bosnia, with a claimed hit rate of 97 per cent. [1]
Sources
- AS-30. Wikipedia (secondary source). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS-30 (accessed 2026-10-27).
Wikipedia articles are secondary sources and can change; they are cited with the date they were read. NAVEDTRA training manuals and budget justification exhibits are official US publications, but each describes the weapons in service when it was written.