Tel Aviv. 04 September 2018. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. announces SPIKE ER2, a 5th Generation Extended Range missile, designed to enable Joint 5th generation tactical overmatch for ground manoeuvre, Rotary dominance & naval deterrence.
The new missile, which will be unveiled at MSPO 2018 in Kielce, Poland, features a number of new capabilities, and a combination of greater standoff range of up to 10 km for surface launch, and 16 km when fired from a helicopter, NLOS engagement capabilities (launch to grid coordinate), while retaining the SPIKE legacy of relatively light weight (less than 34kg) and high lethality. All these constitute significant differentiating factors for the market of precision-guided missiles.
The SPIKE ER2 is part of the legacy of the wider SPIKE Missile family, which has evolved into one of the most combat-proven missiles, integrated to more than 45 platforms, in use by 30 nations, with over 30,000 missiles already supplied and 5000 missiles fired.
The SPIKE ER (Extended Range) variant, which has now been upgraded to SPIKE ER2, is the middle member of the family, with a range of 8 km, and a vast platform portfolio, including the Spanish Army aviation Tiger helicopter, the Colombian Air Force Blackhawk, the Italian AW129 Mangusta, the Romanian Super Puma helicopter, the Super Cobra, and many different types of ground vehicles and naval vessels.
The SPIKE ER2 includes a new RF datalink variant to maximize the missile’s energetic range for enhanced stand-off launch from rotary platforms, enabling its 16km range. It also contains a modern advanced seeker with high resolution IR and day sensors for extended range target acquisition, and a multispectral target tracker, enabling sensory data fusion – an important feature in the smoky environments of today’s battlefields. The missile also has a special maritime target tracker which can sustain target lock-on in the maritime environment.
The SPIKE ER2 seeker was designed for the modern battle arena enabling “hotswap” capabilities of sensory swap between IR to day mid-flight (ideal for detection of camouflaged targets). In addition, SPIKE ER2 has network connectivity and Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) engagement capabilities, including an embedded IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) for missions of third party target allocation, allowing the firing of the missile to NLOS grid target coordinates.
The missile’s enhanced lethality consists of a combination of very high precision (regardless of the range), a very high angle of attack and advanced warheads, making the lethality of the SPIKE ER2 unmatched. Its advanced Tandem HEAT warhead has armour penetration capabilities of all known MBT’s and embedded anti-structure capabilities. A Penetration, Blast and Fragmentation (PBF) Warhead (anti-fortification/anti-ship) option is also available.
SPIKE ER2 has built-in, risk-free integration and compatibility to all SPIKE missile family legacy launchers, requiring only software update, for rapid fielding.
Rafael is designating the SPIKE ER2 for the German Tiger Program, leveraging the integration of the SPIKE ER to the Spanish Tiger. The built-in compatibility of the SPIKE ER2 to the existing launcher will essentially enable a plug-and-play solution with no risk of integration, at a low cost.
The SPIKE ER2 will also be offered to Polish Army as both a surface-to-surface vehicle-mounted standoff precision guided missile (PGM), as well as rotary PGM for the upgraded MI24 and Sokol helicopters.
