Indian Army to place repeat order for Spike missiles from Israel

Indian Army is set to place a repeat order for Spike-LR (Long Range) Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) from Israel as part of emergency procurement. The decision comes days after the Army’s decision to place a repeat order for 72,400 Sig Sauer assault rifles from the U.S.

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Key-Points

The Spike order will be a repeat order for 12 launchers and around 250 missiles under emergency procurement.

Spike is a fourth generation missile which can engage any target with precision at ranges up to 4 kilo metres.

In addition to fire and forget capability, the missile also has the ability to fire, observe and update, providing substantial flexibility to the firer to pinpoint the impact point, as also the ability to switch to a different target mid-flight, should he want to do so.

The missile has an inbuilt seeker, which gives the firer the flexibility to use any of two modes: Day (CCD) and Night (IIR). The dual seeker adds to the missile’s reliability.

The Army has a much larger requirement for ATGMs which will be met through indigenous Man Portable ATGM under development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) after an earlier tender was cancelled.