Lightweight portable missile system Rafael Mini-Spike

2 September 2009 at the armaments exhibition held in parallel with the Third Military Conference in Latrun, the Israeli defense concern RAFAEL presented a new member of the family of optoelectronic guided missiles Spike. (Concern Rafael was established within the Ministry of Defense more than 50 years ago, and was registered as an independent company in 2002 year. Its sales last year amounted to about 2 billion dollars.) Since then, the Mini-Spike system has been repeatedly presented at various exhibitions. At one of these exhibitions, the author of these lines had a chance to get acquainted with this product directly, shoot at the simulator and talk with the Mini-Spike project manager.

The Mini-Spike, dubbed the Mini-Spike Anti-Personnel Guided Weapon, is the first implementation of the concept of anti-personnel high-precision wireless guided missiles designed for use at company and platoon levels.

The Mini-Spike portable rocket system weighs about 12 kg and includes an aiming and launching device designed to detect, capture the target and wirelessly control the rocket and two missiles in transport and launch containers. The homing head and infrared sensor are located in a transparent hemisphere in the nose of the rocket (models presented at exhibitions are not equipped with a transparent cap). Electronics, guidance and servos, warhead and rocket engine are located in a small rocket body.

The complex is equipped with an infrared type IIR finder and an automatic “shot and forget” guidance system with an additional wireless channel for command guidance mode in which the target can be corrected or canceled already in flight.

The maximum firing range, according to various sources, is 1200-1500 meters, the minimum 200 meters. The rocket with the transport and launch container weighs about 4-kilograms. It should be noted the unusual shape of the container rocket with a square cross section. The rocket has a length of 70 cm and 75 mm in diameter. Usually, the fighter carries the sighting system and 2 missiles, additional missiles are transferred by other fighters. Missiles can also be launched using a standard sighting system, a tripod and a Spike missile launcher. At the choice of the operator, a rocket is capable of hitting a target at low, medium or large angles of attack, which allows it to effectively hit hidden targets. The missile’s unique ability is the ability to deactivate the warhead in flight, allowing the user to make a high-precision attack with minimal low side damage using only the kinetic energy of the rocket instead of the kinetic explosive effect. This may be necessary for a covert effect of use (no explosion), or to eliminate the risk of undesirable victims as much as possible. (By allowing such a mode, the developers seem so confident in the accuracy of the rocket that is flat that it eliminates the target by hitting it hard on the head.) Like its predecessors, this rocket has a soft start and can be launched from the premises.

According to the project manager, the Mini-Spike is a cheap alternative to powerful Spike missiles where a scalpel is needed, where a single shot is needed, without causing collateral casualties and destruction, to eliminate the danger in shelters, trenches or lightly armored vehicles. GOS allows you to automatically hold even the selected moving target.

The target complex can be used independently for observation and target designation. It has a variety of useful modes, including video recording and playback.

The Mini-Spike was successfully tested in real combat conditions as part of a counter-terrorist operation. The cost of this complex is not reported.

Comments

[Igor]

Aaaaaaaaa !!!! Cool thing !!! Even can be used for reconnaissance, the ideal thing for spets.operatsy and carrying case is well made.

[Dust]

Oh, dear garbage for budget development - it’s easier to bang from a sniper and it’s much cheaper ...

[Professor]

And even cheaper to approach and crack on the head with a brick.

[matex]

professor: "And it's even cheaper to come up and crack in the head with a brick."

[AK-74-1]

To the professor, as always, respect for both the article and the quote.

[755962]

"I don't know what kind of weapons the third world war will be fought with, but the fourth - with sticks and stones." Probably it will be even cheaper.

[datur]

Professor, brick weapons of the proletariat !!!!

[Tirpitz]

It is necessary to purchase 1-2 pieces and copy if we have nothing of the kind (and it is not wrong). For spetsnaz the most.

[Professor]

Iron pieces are not a problem to copy, optics can be, though not easy, with electronics, difficulties begin, but algorithms will have to be developed by ourselves.

[Justme]

..Well sickened already ..
With electronics, mathematics, algorithms - no problem! - I myself work in this area, I develop hardware myself, develop mathematics and integrate it into algorithms ..
There is another problem - our military-industrial complex is saturated with selfish interests and irresponsibility, first of all, of leadership.
After all, it often turns out - pets who give opportunities - "do not pull",
and streams of money and opportunities - do not give "not to their".

[Professor]

With electronics, mathematics, algorithms - no problem! - I myself work in this area, I develop hardware myself, develop mathematics and integrate it into algorithms ..

I willingly believe that it’s only on Russian ATGMs that there is no system fired, I forgot.

[wk]

Quote: professor

I willingly believe that it’s only on Russian ATGMs that there is no system fired, I forgot.

I bet ... back in 2000, during the 2nd Chechen company on TV, a report was shown, where a similar domestic complex was used, but not for its intended purpose, but to destroy manpower .... even in the report, the topic of the high cost of the shot was aggressively exaggerated ... A lot of time has passed - I do not remember the order of prices and the name of the device.

[mind1954]

If I am not mistaken, it was an ATGM ?!

[Professor]

There was used either a Contest or a cornet, but none of them has a "fire-and-forget" guidance system.

[datur]

ProfessorDuc after such effective steering managers such as a fisherman, to survive - here he was at the KBP, we steered, quiet horror! Thank God they didn’t have time to make a mess up to the end! survived !!!!! and make the system !!!!!!!! Do not be scared!!!!! we will not die alive !!!!!

[CC-18a]

Dear beard999 answered you in great detail and explained everything to you earlier, have you really forgotten?
He told you about Klevok, and he told you a lot of new things. And you again ... "shot - forgot" "Russia has nothing like that ..."

[Igor]

Yes, why be sure to copy, anyway this is not a combined arms thing. Buy 200-300 pieces for special forces and that’s all, the United States also buy grenade launchers from the Swedes.

[vic22lud]

You only need to copy and steal other people's ideas

Well, then immediately copy and steal His or something not?

[Alexey Prikazchikov]

We have our own ideas and developments, we have trouble with corruption in the military-industrial complex pushing only ours, but really serious developments, on the contrary, put aside how much has already happened, you can’t even count. Why, with regards to this, you Jews are well done, of course, but you don’t need to insult them like that, because we can start trolling too, for example, you can’t make your own airplanes and you don’t have turntables !!

[valex]

There is one, but the documentation is sold abroad, it is successfully produced there and issued as

[atos_kin]

It seems to me that this is a promising direction for the development of individual weapons. Over time, with a decrease in size, such missile systems will become a mandatory attribute of the equipment of a special (cyber) soldier. Yes, it’s expensive, but accurate.

[KA]

I would like to know about the price of this device, otherwise the statement: "Mini-Spike is a cheap alternative ..." sounds unfounded.
As I understand it, this weapon is for the destruction of ATGM calculations, why else could it be used in military conflicts?

[borisst64]

The infrared sensor captures the target (human heat) at a distance of 1500 m !!! I'm padstal !!
Such a rocket will first kill all cattle in the district, and then begin to attack teapots in the trenches))
Well, about the deactivation of the head - this is a masterpiece, if only to find out at what point and by whom the decision is made.
Another divorce to pinch off a piece of military pie!

[Green 413-1685]

Honestly, too, surprised. Anyway, it looks like the situation will be like with sophisticated household appliances, when the options and all sorts of buttons are fucked up, but in real life a couple of three and a regular mode are used. Or is that why the abolition of the goal is intended? The radius of the product is up to 1500 m, the time it takes to make a SEC decision, I doubt very much that there will be a situation when the shooter shoots, he suddenly gets off and also has time to quickly reconfigure. The man is still not a machine, he will lose 3-4 seconds when changing. Yes, and the option of a disabled head also seems strange. Here there are helicopter airplanes withstand 1-2 defeats from light MANPADS with a full warhead, but here are the developers confident that they will knock down a blank? Even with high kinetics. This needs a direct hit either in the engine or on the pilot. Which is doubtful.

[Professor]

This needs a direct hit either in the engine or on the pilot.

What makes you think that they will be shot at LA?

[Green 413-1685]

You can of course on a live target. Only in this case it seems to me that such a system is redundant. Do you know this concept? There really is a good sniper is the best option. Moreover, the guidance on infrared radiation of a person, and even among the likely interference from other sources of infrared radiation, such as equipment, etc. It is not reliable and not optimal.

[valex]

Half of the foreign army uniforms are designed to "blur" the thermal silhouette of a person, the work is carried out in contrast to the "man-environment" in the Middle East. as writes below CHUKAPABRA. This thing is suitable only at night, so it is very difficult to recognize a saboteur or a civilian. Another question, if the range of operation in the "third transparency window" is from 8 to 12 microns, but judging by the input lens, germanium optics is not used

[chukapabra]

Quote: Green 413-1685

Yes, and the option of a disabled head also seems strange.

The option to turn off the warhead is connected with the realities of the Middle East (namely, the operations carried out by the Israeli Army in settlements) Therefore, in order not to harm the innocent in the event of a change in the operational situation or when civilians are approaching the target, the option to turn off the warhead is very important.

[datur]

chukapabra, and when it is the Israelis, and indeed the Westerners, such trifles interested in ????? /

[Professor]

At that moment when they stopped using carpet bombing.

[Professor]

Another divorce to pinch off a piece of military pie!

1. Today, not a single client without testing the equipment will pay a penny for it.
2. Rafael is a serious company, yet it has not been caught lying.

[Kars]

Quote: professor

The infrared sensor captures the target (human heat) at a distance of 1500 m

how is it that you told me that a person’s thermal imager doesn’t even distinguish meters from 100. And some of them even brought formulas, and you didn’t mind them. And here is a small portable device - and you are welcome.

[qwz_qwz]

Milking standards))

[chukapabra]

Quote: Kars

how is it that you told me that a person’s thermal imager doesn’t even distinguish meters from 100. And some of them even brought formulas, and you didn’t mind them. And here is a small portable device - and you are welcome.

I have a * Flir * thermal imager at work to determine the contact heating temperature in high-voltage equipment, so he sees a person 200 meters away without voltage. And military models are much more sensitive

[Kars]

Where have you been before when some individuals brought whole lines of physical formulas proving that a person with 100 meters could not be identified. And I argued that there are even civilian devices that can detect km 16 (Stationary, from the tower) and identify 4-5.

[klop_mutant]

Well, Kazakhstan did have some kind of scandal with equipment modernized by Israeli offices.

[Katran]

In 2009, from 244 to 288 Spike missiles and 24 launchers were purchased by Peru (the total amount of the contract ranged from 48 to 55.8 million dollars). During the test firing on April 16, 2010, two rockets were fired. The first was shot in the afternoon and successfully hit the target. The second was released at night in front of a large number of high-ranking guests and journalists, but the marching engine did not start and the rocket fell about fifty meters from people, but did not explode. [10] The materials of the subsequent heated discussion of the incident “give reason to believe that the interests of the Spike manufacturer were actively lobbied by corrupt Peruvian officials and businessmen, whose ultimate goal is $ 650 million allocated for the implementation of a large-scale program to modernize the Armed Forces of Peru.” The scandal resulted in a visit to Lima by the head of the Rafael company in Lima in May 2010 to personally explain to the customer about the causes of the incident, which he called “unforeseen accident”. He previously said that such “... ATGMs were delivered to 17 armies of the world, including the Israeli army; more than 1800 missiles were fired, the reliability level is about 95%. " After the meeting, the Ministry of Defense and the army command of Peru “decided to require the supplier to exchange the delivered missiles for newer ones.” [11]
so that anything happens, and there’s a rip-off on the old woman
I think this link will be in the topic http://periscope2.ru/2010/05/14/2592/

[evening]

Who knows who sees on the launcher the presence of command transmission devices, such as a radio channel?

[Professor]

This is what it looks like:

[Katran]

An interesting thing, but possible shortcomings: Price, peeling by infantry will be expensive, only in exceptional cases (Sniper, Heavy, Officer), there is no information about an approximate coefficient of effectiveness, and it’s hard for 12kg anti-personnel weapons only to destroy 2 opponents, maximum for And the engineer’s talent is not in creating a cool super tricked out thing, but in terms of price and quality, that is, finding simple technological solutions at an affordable price, that is, if you want, you can create a very cool but expensive things, and there will be sales problems. But time will tell, maybe this is the weapon of the future. In the meantime, it is more and more like self-promotion with a minimum of information, only the positive aspects of the product and silence about the minuses (for example: price, reliability).

[Passing]

Quote: Katran

but possible disadvantages: Price

The ability to extinguish a target for one and a half kilometers (that is, when it can threaten you with anything) is priceless.
In general, the price is not the right criterion for evaluating a weapon. Rather, correct only for peacetime. For wartime, it will be right - how much resources you need to spend on production, are there any severely deficient (such as rare-earth metals) technological options for mass production? Now, if it will be possible to quickly deploy the multimillion-dollar production of such systems, then it will be a good combined arms weapon, if not, then this is a weapon for special operations.

[Katran]

If it is possible to destroy the 1500m removal target but 4 times cheaper (for example, a heavy sniper rifle), then why pay more, and who told you that this missile destroys 100% of the target, I didn’t find anything about it in the article (statistical efficiency coefficient ) Well, the price starts, then the price, that is, money is just the general unit of measure for all the parameters that you have mentioned, that is, the price already includes technological effectiveness, scarce materials, the number of hours, etc.

[Ergenekon]

ATGM speed will soon be the size of a lighter)

[Zomanus]

I correctly understand that with the help of lighting missiles and false flares, you can deceive this herd. And if we say the target against the sunset, who would prefer the rocket? Campaign there is not just so decontamination in the air is provided ...

[Professor]

No, not right. The GOS has a high dynamic range and just does not light it.
Deactivation is provided so as not to bang their own.