The Spanish army’s future fleet of 24 Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopters are to be equipped with Rafael Spike-ER air-to-surface missiles, following the signature of a $60 million contract between the Israeli manufacturer and local partner General Dynamics Santa Barbara.
Madrid had also evaluated the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire and MBDA Trigat LR weapons for its Tigers, but the Rafael design emerged as a clear favourite earlier this year, after the army selected its Spike-LR system to meet a $425 million land forces requirement for 2,600 anti-tank missiles.
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With a maximum range of 8km (4.3nm), the electro-optically-guided Spike-ER (one missile shown above on Tiger's starboard weapons pylon) can be launched in three modes: fire and forget; fire, observe and update, using a fibre-optic datalink; and fire and steer, where the 33kg (73lb) missile is launched without first having locked onto a target.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
