Spike

Israel's multi-platform electro-optical anti-tank / precision-strike missile family — the most-exported Western ATGM, operated by 39 nations and spanning a 50 km stand-off envelope.

Overview

Spike is a family of electro-optical anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) and beyond-line-of-sight precision-strike rounds developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Variants range from the man-portable Spike SR (1.5 km) to the vehicle- and helicopter-launched Spike NLOS (32 km from ground platforms, 50 km from aircraft). The family has been ordered by 41 countries — including the United States and most NATO members — and more than 40,000 rounds have been produced as of 2023, according to Wikipedia, making it the most-exported Western ATGM of its class.

Development

The earliest Spike round, the NLOS missile codenamed Tamuz (also spelled Tammuz), entered Israeli service in the early 1980s as a closely held beyond-line-of-sight weapon. The modern Spike MR/LR/ER family followed in 1997, built for export with fire-and-forget and fiber-optic man-in-the-loop capabilities. Since then the family has evolved through five generations of electro-optical seekers, with the fifth-generation Spike LR2 that entered production in 2014 extending the man-portable segment to 5.5 km. In 2022 Rafael unveiled the sixth-generation Spike NLOS, which introduces four-round salvos, mid-flight control handover between platforms, and target-image acquisition that can single out a specific vehicle in a formation. A transatlantic industrial partnership with Lockheed Martin, formed in 2012, has anchored the missile's entry into US Army service, while the German-majority joint venture EuroSpike GmbH (founded in 2004) anchors European production and has made Spike what Rafael calls "NATO's unofficial missile."

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