What is the NLAW? The Single-Use Anti-Tank Missile Ukraine Made Famous

The NLAW — Next-generation Light Anti-tank Weapon, officially MBT LAW — is a shoulder-launched, single-use short-range anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) jointly developed by Saab Bofors Dynamics of Sweden and the United Kingdom’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S). Designed in the early 2000s as the British Army’s replacement for the LAW 80, the NLAW achieved unexpected global fame in 2022, when British-supplied rounds destroyed dozens of Russian armored vehicles in the opening days of the Russo-Ukrainian war. With more than 30,000 rounds delivered to Ukraine by 2025 and a unit cost less than one-fifth of a Javelin, NLAW has become the textbook example of an “affordable mass” anti-armor weapon.

Key facts at a glance

The PLOS revolution: why NLAW is not a Javelin

The NLAW’s defining innovation is its Predicted Line-of-Sight (PLOS) guidance. The gunner does not lase the target, lock a seeker, or guide the missile during flight. Instead, the gunner tracks the target through the integrated optic for roughly three seconds before launch; the firing computer calculates the target’s speed, direction and predicted future position; the rocket then flies an inertial trajectory to that intercept point, executing an overfly top-attack maneuver as it arrives.

This makes NLAW the simplest of the modern top-attack ATGMs to use under stress. A soldier who can keep cross-hairs on a moving target for three seconds can fire effectively; no warm-up, no coolant, no lock-on tone. Training time to combat-ready proficiency is roughly four hours.

Overfly top-attack explained

NLAW does not climb steeply like a Javelin. It flies a flat trajectory approximately one meter above the predicted target position. As the warhead passes over the vehicle, a magnetic and optical proximity fuze triggers the shaped charge downward into the turret roof. Penetration is rated at roughly 500 mm RHA-equivalent — significantly less than Javelin’s 750 mm, but more than sufficient against the 30–80 mm turret roofs typical of modern MBTs.

If the operator selects direct attack, NLAW becomes a conventional rocket-propelled anti-bunker / anti-infrastructure weapon, useful against fortifications, light structures or helicopters in hover.

Origins: from MBT LAW to global star

The MBT LAW program began in 2002 as a UK MoD requirement to replace the LAW 80 in British infantry battalions. After a competitive tender, the Saab/Bofors design beat Lockheed Martin and Raytheon entries. Initial deliveries to the British Army began in 2009 under the formal designation Anti-Structures Munition (Light). Sweden adopted the system the same year. Finland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Luxembourg followed during the 2010s.

What turned NLAW into a household name was the 25 January 2022 announcement that the United Kingdom would urgently transfer 2,000 rounds to Ukraine ahead of the anticipated Russian invasion. Within days of the 24 February 2022 attack, British-supplied NLAWs were destroying Russian T-80U and T-72B3 tanks in convoys along the Kyiv–Chernihiv axis. The image of Ukrainian infantrymen with green-and-black tubes on their shoulders became one of the defining visuals of the war’s first weeks.

Combat record in Ukraine

Public assessments (UK MoD, Royal United Services Institute, Oryx) credit NLAW with destruction of at least 1,000+ Russian armored vehicles in 2022 alone, including:

• Several T-80BVM and T-80U main battle tanks
• Dozens of T-72B3M and T-72B3 obr. 2016 MBTs
• A confirmed pair of TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launchers
• Hundreds of BMP-1, BMP-2 and BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles
• BTR-82A, BTR-80, MT-LB and Tigr-M wheeled vehicles

By 2023 the operational tempo settled and Russian crews adapted with cope cages, expedient roof armor and tactical changes. But NLAW remains in production: Saab’s Karlskoga plant doubled output in 2022 and is contracted to deliver another 30,000+ rounds through 2027 under UK, Swedish and EU funding.

Operators of NLAW

Strengths

• Cost-per-kill. A USD 30,000 NLAW destroying a USD 4 million tank is the gold standard for asymmetric anti-armor economics.
• Short training cycle. Four hours from never-seen-it to combat-effective.
• Soft-launch. A small ejection motor allows safe firing from inside enclosed structures — critical in urban defense.
• No back-blast danger zone at long distance. The motor burns out inside the tube, leaving only a short flame plume during sustained flight.
• Fully passive. No laser, no IR seeker emissions, no datalink. NLAW is invisible to Russian L-band threat-warning receivers and most active protection systems.

Limitations

• Short range. 800 m — useful in urban or wooded terrain, marginal on open steppe where Russian ATGM teams can engage at 4–5 km.
• Single-use. Once fired, the entire system is discarded; no reusable optic or CLU.
• Penetration limited. 500 mm RHA-e means well-equipped opponents (with reactive armor on the turret roof, slat cages or Trophy-class APS) can sometimes defeat NLAW.
• Three-second lock requirement. Against fleeting or maneuvering targets, the PLOS prediction window is the dominant constraint.

How NLAW compares to its peers

The future: NLAW Block 2

Saab announced a NLAW Block 2 upgrade in 2024 with three principal improvements: range extended to 1,000 m, a new programmable warhead with selectable anti-armor / anti-structure modes, and a digital optic with integrated thermal imaging and Bluetooth link to soldier C2 networks. First Block 2 rounds are due to enter service with the British Army in 2026, and Ukraine is funded for follow-on procurement.

Why NLAW matters

NLAW proved a thesis that the West had forgotten for two decades after 9/11: in major conventional war, infantry needs cheap, simple, mass-produced anti-armor weapons. By February 2022 the British inventory of NLAW was a niche stock; by March it was the most important piece of European-built ground combat equipment in the world. It revived political support for industrial-scale defense procurement across Europe, validated the concept of one-shot top-attack weapons, and forced rival manufacturers to develop equivalents. As long as armored vehicles remain on contested battlefields, weapons like NLAW will be on the shoulders of the soldiers who oppose them.