The Singapore Army has acquired the manportable Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike Short Range (SR) missile system as the next-generation guided anti-armour weapon for its infantry forces, Jane's has learnt at the army's Open House 2017 event that was held from 27 to 29 May.
Jane's understands that the Spike SR has replaced the ageing Saab Bofors Dynamics 84 mm Carl Gustaf recoilless rifle and is now "fully operational". It is primarily employed by the service's infantry, although Jane's understands that it may also be employed by its commando and guards depending on mission requirements.
The Spike SR is the latest and most compact member of Rafael's Spike fire-and-forget missile family. Specifications released by the army describe the system as a disposable, day/night-capable weapon that is 970 mm long with an overall weight of 9.8 kg inclusive of the missile, control launch unit (CLU), and battery.
Unlike the gimballed seeker installed in the Spike MR/LR/ER (medium-, long-, and extended-range) missiles, the Spike SR incorporates an uncooled and fixed day/night-capable electro-optical (EO) seeker and tracker. According to company literature, the SR has a short activation-to-launch cycle of less than six seconds.
The baseline Spike SR configuration features a tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead designed to engage static and moving armoured vehicle targets. However, Jane's reported in 2016 that Rafael has introduced a new penetration blast fragmentation (PBF) warhead - employing the warhead technology developed jointly by the Singapore Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) and the company's Dynamit Nobel Defence subsidiary for the 90 mm MATADOR (Manportable Anti-Tank, Anti-DOoR) light support weapon - to provide troops operating in urban environments with a tactical anti-structure capability.
The service has also stated a minimum and maximum effective range of 100 m and 1,000 m respectively, although Rafael is now specifying a high hit probability against moving targets at ranges from 50 m up to 1,500 m.
(Jane's)