MBDA subsidiary TDW displayed a new-generation version of its PARM off-route anti-tank mine at the Eurosatory 2024 defence exhibition, held from 17 to 21 June in Paris.
Unlike the original Cold War-era PARM DM22, the new system, known as PARM NewGen, has a sensor that can distinguish the range of the target and can be remote-controlled by encrypted radio signal, allowing its operator to activate and deactivate the weapon.
While the PARM NewGen’s 128 mm shaped-charge warhead can penetrate 600 mm of rolled homogeneous armour (RHA), as with the original weapon, it offers an effective range of 60 m compared to 40 m for the original PARM.
Each remote controller that accompanies the Parm NewGen is currently set to be able to control three mines, which it can do at ranges of “several hundreds of kilometres at least”, TDW Managing Director Andreas Seitz told ESD at Eurosatory 2024. He added that the number of mines controlled by a single handset could be increased if a customer requested it.
A key design goal of the PARM NewGen was to keep the unit cost down by trying to achieve as much commonality with the original PARM and by sourcing its additional modules from among those already on the market, Seitz explained, adding that TDW “focused on what is really usable to the end customer”.
Seitz said TDW considered but then rejected the idea of using a double shaped charge instead of a single one for the PARM NewGen for cost reasons. Given that the off-route mine generally targets a hostile armoured vehicle quite low, below any add-on or explosive reactive armour, its single charge was deemed to be sufficient for successfully neutralising its target.
Seitz said that if TDW now received an order for the PARM NewGen, it could be fulfilled by 2026.
TDW restarted production of the PARM DM22 off-route anti-tank mine, which had ceased in 1998, at the end of 2023. This came after Germany’s Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw) announced on 14 November 2023 that it was procuring 2,600 PARM DM22s to replace systems donated to Ukraine, with the option of a further 10,000 systems.
