Rafael Advanced Defense Systems: Latvian National Armed Forces have completed the installation of a new state-of-the-art Team Trainer for SPIKE Missiles to train its soldiers in using Spike LR2 and Spike SR anti-tank missiles, said Israel’s defence major Rafael Advances Defense Systems.
The new system will train Latvian forces to use Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’ SPIKE LR2 and SR missiles, procured from EuroSpike, a joint venture between Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Diehl Defence, and Rheinmetall Electronics.
“The Latvian SPIKE Team Trainer (STT) is an advanced training facility which enables training of three different SPIKE variants – the SPIKE LR (Long Range), the 5th generation SPIKE LR2 and the SPIKE SR,” Gal Papier, head of marketing at Rafael’s Precision Tactical Weapon Systems Directorate said in a statement sent to Defence Star.
Gal Papier, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Gal Papier said that the installed training facility would allow the Latvian Army to both qualify and sustain a high level of current and future generation SPIKE gunners and commanders, enabling them advanced and significant antitank capabilities.
Rafael’s Spike LR2 missile
SPIKE LR2 is a 5th generation missile with an engagement range of 5.5km, and SPIKE SR is a company-level fire-and-forget light missile for 2 kilometers.
Rafael’s Spike SR Missile
The SPIKE SR is a light shoulder-launched disposable fire-and-forget missile, effective up to 2km. Weighing only 10 kg, and with a dual seeker, the SPIKE SR allows the maneuvering infantry to acquire and engage fast-moving targets at short range, thanks to its advanced tracker.
READ: US Navy: General Atomics’ EMALS, AAG systems reach crucial milestone aboard CVN-78
Rafael’s Spike LR2 missile
The SPIKE LR2 is a fifth-generation multipurpose missile. Featuring improved engagement ranges of up to 5.5 kilometers, SPIKE LR2 weighs only 13 kilograms, possesses enhanced lethality, advanced target tracking capabilities, and a new network-enabled third-party target allocation enhancement with an embedded inertial measurement unit (IMU) assembly.
READ: Elbit Systems bags $35 million order to support US Navy’s V-22 Osprey aircraft
Rafael’s Spike Missile Training Facility.
READ: India’s DRDO test-fires Supersonic Missile Assisted Release Torpedo SMART
Rafael’s Spike Team Trainer
The STT (SPIKE Team Trainer), was installed at the end of August 2020 by teams from Rafael and EuroSpike.
The STT provides the SPIKE LR2 and SPIKE SR gunners, squad and section commanders, fully-simulated battlefield training, improving both gunnery and command and control proficiency levels, leading the gunner through all stages of the firing sequence from VIS or IR surveillance of a simulated image up to target impact.
READ: Rafael’s Spyder air defense system wins Czech military contract
Rafael’s Spike Team Trainer (STT) can simulate real-time battle management challenges, such as command and control of multiple launchers, training in synergy between observation and fire positions and it trains the gunners and commanders in handling different scenarios.
The STT uniquely-simulates different environmental scenarios on a real terrain database, with varying visibility conditions, simulating the different seasons of the year, and it can be developed and adjusted based on the customer’s specific request, such as real threat analysis, fighting doctrine and expected enemy course-of-action.
READ: India-Russia sign AK-203 rifle deal during defence minister’s Russia visit
The training SPIKE platoons go through a full cycle of mission planning, mission execution and detailed debriefing after action according to the data collected during the scenario, which is fully documented (including video, audio and & radio recordings), allowing optimal post-mission debriefing.
READ: Make in India: Dedicated defence indigenisation portal SRIJAN launched
