The system was developed for the French and German Armies and over 330,000 missiles have been produced since 1972. MILAN is in service in 41 countries.

MILAN 3, armed with a tandem warhead with a new firing post with jam-resistant pulsed-beacon infrared guidance, has been in production since 1996 and has been ordered by the France, Cyprus and two other armies.

The munition consists of the missile in a waterproof launch tube. MILAN 2 has a single shaped charge warhead for use against very thick and composite armour. MILAN 2T and MILAN 3 missiles are armed with a tandem charge for use against reactive armour.

The missile's Artus propulsion system is a dual system supplied by Societe Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs of France. The first stage burns for 1.5 seconds to eject the missile from the launcher to a distance of about 3 m, and then the second stage burns for 11 seconds giving a speed of over 200 metres/second and maximum range of 2 km for a 12.5 second time-of-flight.

The firing post consists of a sighting system and a guidance assembly mounted on a tripod. The infrared localiser measures the angular deviation between the missile and the line of sight to the target. The transmission of guidance data by wire and the new MILAN 3 CCD localiser provide jamming resistance. All existing MILAN firing posts can be easily upgraded to MILAN 3 firing posts, which can fire all MILAN missiles.

The firing post can be equipped with an optional MIRA thermal sight, produced by Thales (formerlyThomson-CSF) Optrosys. MIRA has a detection range of 4000 m and field of view of 6 x 3 degrees. The mounting bracket is quickly set up without tools or modification to the MILAN firing post. No correlation between the thermal sight and the firing post is necessary. A new generation thermal sight has been developed for the MILAN 3 firing post, the MILIS from SAGEM, which has a dual field of view.

In typical deployment, one squad of two MILAN firing posts can be assigned at company level and three or four squads form a platoon used at regiment or battalion level. The launch crew consists of two, the gunner who carries the firing post and the loader or assistant gunner who carries two missiles.

The gunner places the sight mark on the base of the target and presses the firing button. The missile is launched from the launch container and the launch tube is ejected to the rear of the launcher. The launcher can then be reloaded. Immediately after launch the fins on the missile open to provide a stabilising roll to the missile. After the missile is clear of the gunner, the sustainer rocket ignites. The gunner tracks the target simply by maintaining the position of the sight reticle centred on the target during missile flight.

During flight the missile is automatically slaved at about 0.5 m above the line-of-sight to avoid obstacles. The explosion of the charge occurs at the moment of impact with the target, even at high angles of incidence up to 80 degrees. The rate of fire is up to three rounds per minute.

Various mounting installations enable MILAN to be used from any vehicle either placed with the tripod on the roof or secured by using a quick-release clamp. Twin turrets have been developed for tracked vehicles allowing the missiles to be fired under armour.