The SNEB rocket (''Societe Nouvelle des Etablissements Edgar Brandt'' ) is an unguided

air-to-surface An air-to-surface missile (ASM) or air-to-ground missile (AGM) is a missile designed to be launched from military aircraft at targets on land or sea. There are also unpowered guided glide bombs not considered missiles. The two most common pro ...

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

projectile manufactured by the French company ''TDA Armements'', designed for launch by

attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pr ...

and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s. It is also known as the SNEB rocket pod, and sometimes as the Matra rocket, due to it commonly being carried in pod-like launchers built by

Matra Matra (an acronym for Mécanique Aviation Traction) was a major French industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Its business activities covered a wide range of industries, notably aerospace manufacturer, aerospace, defence industry, def ...

. Two other rockets were developed in the and caliber. The 37mm caliber was one of the earliest folding fin free flight rockets developed after World War II; it was developed mainly for air-to-air engagements and is no longer in service. The 100mm caliber variant is in service with the French Air Force and a few other air forces. Besides France, several other nations produce the SNEB 68 mm rocket under license. In France today, SNEB has been reorganized into the firm of Thomson-Brandt.

Warheads

The ''SNEB'' rockets can be armed with these

warhead A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: *E ...

s: *

High explosive An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An exp ...

(HE) *

High-explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT) shaped charge *Multi-purpose fragmentation *

Flechette A flechette or flèchette ( ) is a pointed, fin-stabilized steel projectile. The name comes from French (from \''wikt:flèche, flèche''), meaning "little arrow" or "Dart (missile), dart", and sometimes retains the grave accent in English: flè ...

anti-personnel/materiel *

Smoke Smoke is an aerosol (a suspension of airborne particulates and gases) emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwante ...

* Illuminating *Training rocket

Laser guidance development

The ''Systeme de Roquette A Corrections de Trajectoire (SYROCOT)'' is a program where a laser-guided seeker is incorporated into the design. It is compatible with the existing SNEB system. It is comparable to the US Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System project.

Rocket launchers, pods

The French armament company of

produced three types of rocket launcher for use with the SNEB 68 mm rockets: *Matra ''Type 116M'' rocket launcher – This is lightly constructed and used as an expendable rocket launcher pod with a

frangible A material is said to be frangible if through deformation it tends to break up into fragments, rather than deforming elastically and retaining its cohesion as a single object. Common crackers are examples of frangible materials, while fresh bre ...

nose cone A nose cone is the conically shaped forwardmost section of a rocket, guided missile or aircraft, designed to modulate oncoming fluid dynamics, airflow behaviors and minimize aerodynamic drag. Nose cones are also designed for submerged wat ...

, loaded with 19 SNEB 68mm rockets which are fired in one rippled 0.5 second

salvo A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute. As a tactic in warfare, the intent is to cripple an enemy in many blows at once and prevent them from f ...

with a time interval of 33 milliseconds between each rocket firing. The pod automatically jettisons after all rockets are gone. *Matra ''Type 155'' rocket launcher – Widely produced, this is a reusable device made fully of metal with a fluted nose cone through which the rockets fire. Loaded with 18 SNEB 68mm rockets, it can be preprogrammed on the ground to fire individually or in one ripple salvo as the ''Type 116M''. *Matra ''JL-100'' drop tank, rocket pack — This unique arrangement combines a

drop tank In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...

with a rocket launcher containing 19 SNEB 68 mm rockets in front to form an aerodynamically shaped pod which can be mounted on over-wing or under-wing

hardpoint A hardpoint is an attachment location on a structural frame designed to transfer force and carry an external or internal structural load, load. The term is usually used to refer to the mounting points (more formally known as a weapon station o ...

s. One notable aircraft equipped with this was the English Electric Lightning F.53 of Royal Saudi Air Force. TDA Armements SAS (a subsidiary of

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

) also manufactures pods for the 68mm SNEB rocket. Variants produced are the 12 tube Telson 12 JF for fighter aircraft, the 12 tube Telson 12 and the 22 tube Telson 22 used by the

Eurocopter Tiger The Eurocopter Tiger is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter which first entered service in 2003. It is manufactured by Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter), which arose from the merger of Aérospatiale's and DASA's respective helico ...

, the 8 tube Telson 8 designed for light helicopters and the 2 tube Telson 2 suitable for

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

s and light counter-insurgency aircraft. The British firm Thomas French & Sons also produced a series of launchers for the SNEB, which were licensed versions of the Matra Type 155. These were later adapted for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

's own post-war 2-inch RP rockets which replaced the SNEB due to concerns over the electrical firing system being set off by ship radars.

Used by

Helicopters

Fixed-wing aircraft

References

{{Reflist

External links

T.D.A. Armements SAS website
Air-to-ground rockets Cold War weapons of France Matra