SPIKE Shoulder-Launched Fire-and-Forget Guided Missile Kills Fast-Moving Threats
SPIKE Shoulder-Launched Fire-and-Forget Guided Missile Kills Fast-Moving Threats
by David Crane
david@defensereview.com
Some folks at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), a.k.a. NAVAIR Weapons Division (China Lake, CA), are currently developing a "man-packable, shoulder-launched guided missile" system for U.S. infantry warfighters called SPIKE. The developmental system is essentially a low-cost, compact, and lightweight man-portable shoulder-fired fire-and-forget missile system that incorporates three separate guidance modesinertial, laser, and imaging electro-opticalinto its targeting system to lock onto the target and ensure kills against moving targets on the ground and in the air out to a range of approx. two miles.
DefenseReview found out about SPIKE at SHOT Show 2006 in February (2006). Steve Felix, one of the engineers on the project, was walking around the show for some reason, ran into a member of our team, and handed him the SPIKE fact sheet (pictured). When we subsequently interviewed Mr. Felix in March (2006), he informed us that the impetus for the project was to give our infantry warfighters an
affordable, easily carried shoulder-fired guided fire-and-forget missile system that would allow them to take out the kinds of ground vehicles that terrorists/insurgents in Iraq are currently using (relatively fast-moving civilian cars and trucks), without breaking the bank, and without it being too heavy to carry. According to Felix, "up until now, people have only done guided weapons to kill tanks and bigger." He added, What were trying to do is bring guided missile technology down to the grunt on the ground. Turns out that a lot of targets, especially moving targets, are very hard to hit. And, so, we were gonna give em a guided missile that let em reach out and hit these guys that were giving them a problem, as stated in some of their fleet battle expleriments, and do it for a factor-of-ten less cost and a factor-of-five less weight. Guided missiles, historically, were too heavy and too explensive to be used in really large numbers. Whatever you give the infantry, it needs to be available in large numbers."
Thats where SPIKE comes in. At at a projected cost of $10,000 per unit ($5K for the missile, $5K for the re-usable launcher), an OA weight of 10 lbs (missile + launcher), and is relatively compact. The $10K projected initial buy-in/per-unit cost and $5,000-per-shot cost means that the U.S. military should be able to afford/purchase the system in large numbers, especially since the $5K launcher is reusable. NAVAIR Weapons Division claims that because of its compact size and light weight, a Marine can carry three SPIKE systems in his backpack. While Felix acknowledges that "you still need the silver bullet [Javelin anti-armor weapon system, etc.] for the big boys", i.e. main battle tanks (MBT), he points out that those systems are overkill for the most common vehicle-born threats that our warfighters currently face in the battlespace. "Our [SPIKE team] point is that we should have something else so that you can do the same kind of thing against the vehicles that the terrorists have," Felix said. These vehicle-borne IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices)/shooting platforms are "harder than all get-out to hit, cause theyre really bookin. I mean, theyre not like military vehicles that drive 30 miles an hour. Theyre doin 75 miles and hour. And theyre jinkin, and theyre hard to hit. Well, you could use a Javelin on em, but, ya know, theyll bankrupt us if we keep shootin at those cars and trucks with Javelins," Felix added.
Thats because the Javelin anti-tank missile system, developed by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control specifically to take out heavily-armored main battle tanks (MBT), is expensive with a reported cost over $200,000 and OA weight of 49.06 lbs for the combined missile/launcher system. Fortunately, the launcher is reusable, but the missiles, obviously, are not, and they cost $100,000+ apiece. Thats o.k., of course, because the main battle tanks that Javelin was designed and developed to destroy are far more expensive than that, so the use of the Javelin system on those targets is an acceptable financial transaction, especially since youre only paying for the missiles/projectiles for each subsequent tank kill. But the Javelins destructive power and $200,000+ per-unit buy-in and $100,000+ per-shot cost is severe overkill for the relatively inexpensive and very plentiful civilian/light-skinned vehicles terrorists/insurgents are using as vehicle-born IEDs and shooting platforms. SPIKE, at $5,000 per shot (i.e. per missile), is a much more economical way to go for neutralizing these targets, and it can also destroy light-armored vehicles.
With SPIKE, a warfighter will reportedly also be able to destroy/neutralize low-flying, slow-moving aircraft like helicopters, for example. "I can hit a target if it has a 60 mile-an-hour crossing velocity or less, and if its pulling less than two Gs. What that really doesnt say is that the vehicle can be moving somewhat faster. It just cant have a big crossing velocity. Which means I can hit most helos," Felix said. And prop planes, provided theyre low and slow enough. General aviation kinds of things. That terrorist in his Cessna 150, if hes comin down. I cant go up after em. If they want to fly at 14,000 feet, you need something else," Felix said.
Thats what Stingers are for.
Anyway, when DefenseReview asked Felix what "inertial" meant, referring to one of SPIKEs three targeting modes, Felix replied "It means that if I get surprised, Ill just bring this thing up, point at the target, count one second off, and pull the trigger, and the electronicseven though they havent locked on a targetwill cause this thing to fly as straight as it absolutely can. So I will be able to hit trucks and jeep-size targets out to about 200 meters." The ability to "snap-shoot" and immediately destroy fast inbound insurgent/terrorist vehicles is a particularly important capability for U.S. infantry warfighters to have, since their lives depend on it. This type of threat is common in Iraq, at present.
During our interview, DefenseReview recommended that the Felix and his team develop a thermobaric warhead for SPIKE similar in profile/capability to Talley Defense Systems thermobaric version of their M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon), and Felix agreed that its worth exploring. Thermobarics (thermobaric weapons) can have a profound psychological impact on the enemy. Human beings have a natural, innate fear of fire and burning alive. While a targeted individual in an enclosed target space is perhaps more likely to die or at least be rendered unconcious by the blast-caused overpressure and lack of oxygen (after the available oxygen is consumed by the fireball) before burning to death, its still a pretty scary proposition.
DefRev also mentioned the idea of attaching SPIKEs to weaponized UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles) and UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles). With regard to a UCAV platform, SPIKE would appear to be ideally suited for an unmanned rotorcraft (unmanned helicopter) platform. Neural Robotics, Inc. (NRI), developer of the AutoCopter Gunship semi-autonomous unmanned helicopter, is currently developing a larger umanned helo that can carry a lot more weight (somewhere in the area of 100 lbs). A larger-version AutoCopter Gunship armed with multiple AA-12 Full-Auto Shotgun/FRAG-12 grenade weapons packages and SPIKEs would seem to be a pretty potent unmanned weapons system. Coincidentally, Steve Felix recently attended the 5th Annual Conference on Armed UAVs in Las Vegas, NV (June 8-9, 2006), which "examines the entire gamut of issues associated with Armed UAVs and Precision Munitions" and asks the question: "What missions can Armed UAVs realistically perform?"
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NAWCWD Corporate Communications: News Release
Date: 20-Feb-08
News Release Number: ECL200802201
By Staci Mathews NAWCWD Public Affairs
Remote-controlled target
Test image: Spike is about to hit the remote controlled target just as the test team planned.
Steve Felix, Frank Knemeyer, Burrell Hays, Dick Mello
Steve Felix, Spike project manager, updates former China Lakers Frank Knemeyer, Burrell Hays, and Dick Mello on the progress of the Spike project at NAWCWD. Photo by Renee Hatcher.
Steve Felix explains simulation of a UAV launch by firing Spike
Steve Felix, Spike project manager, explains how NAWCWD test engineers simulated a UAV launch by firing Spike from the top of this small mountain on the China Lake range and hitting a target nearly a mile and a half away. Photo by Joy Lewis.
Art Hickle, Mary Retterer
Art Hickle, Spike deputy project manager, explains to Mary Retterer, president of Cerro Coso Community College, how the Spike missile will be attached to the rail beside them and then launched at a moving target on the valley floor below. Photo by Renee Hatcher.
The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division conducted its fourth successful Spike guided missile demonstration on Feb. 12 at China Lake.
"This was a major milestone for us," said Steven Felix, Spike project manager at NAWCWD. "We were able to simulate Spike being fired from an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), and we used the NAWCWD-developed, UAV-capable Airborne Fire Control System (AFCS) for the first time."
Spike test engineers in conjunction with NAWCWD Range Department personnel simulated a UAV launch by firing Spike from the top of a small mountain on the China Lake range down onto a target on the valley floor nearly a mile and a half away. The Spike missile hit a Range Department developed and operated remote controlled target truck traveling at about a 20 mph crossing velocity at a range of a mile and a half. The AFCS used a radio frequency wireless data link to communicate between Spike and the remotely located weapons control station to command the missile's lock-on-before-launch target acquisition, track, and launch system.
"Spike successfully tracked and hit the panel van target as expected," Felix said. "The remote launch is a primary capability that must be demonstrated before pushing forward to the goal of firing a Spike missile from a small UAV."
Originally conceived and developed by Felix at China Lake,
Spike is the smallest guided missile in the world at 25 inches long, 2.25 inch diameter, and 5.3 pounds, and is the only missile using an electro-optical imaging strapped-down seeker. The cost goal is $5,000 per unit, which would make Spike the lowest cost guided missile currently in existence.
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Spike's small total weight could make it the weapon-of-choice for the small, tactical UAVs because of their limited payload capabilities," Felix said. "It could also be shoulder-launched in ground combat or used as a force-protection weapon to defend surface ships from small-boat swarms, and it could be available to the warfighter in less than three years."