AMX-30R Roland SAM System

The Roland is a Franco-German mobile short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. The second missile system is the AMX-30R (Roland) surface-to-air missile launching system, which began development in 1974. Five vehicles of a pre-series were completed by 1977 and then evaluated, prompting the order of 183 vehicles that same year. The Roland includes a rectangular superstructure, taller than that of both the AMX-30D and the Pluton, which houses the radar system and mounts two launching tubes on either side, with an autoloading system feeding from an eight missile reserve inside the superstructure. The Roland's exploration radar has a detection range of 16 kilometers (9.9 mi). The third missile system, called the AMX-30SA, was developed in 1975 for Saudi Arabia, to fire the SA-10 Shahine, developed and manufactured by Thomson-CSF; the launching vehicle was heavily based on the AMX-30R.