(War Is Boring) In 2007, the United Kingdom issued an "urgent operational requirement" for a weapon to deliver counter-battery fire against mortar teams harassing British troops in Iraq. The British Army needed something that could respond swiftly and precisely so as not to cause collateral damage in a densely populated city - and they needed it right away. The UK acquired 12 armored personnel carriers fitted with Israel's Spike Non-Line of Sight missiles and leased two more directly from Israel Defense Forces stocks. Spike-NLOS missiles can strike targets up to 26 km. away. The Israelis call it Tamuz and each missile costs $100,000. After launch, the camera in the missile's nose feeds back to the launcher using a radio link. The crew can manually pilot the weapon right until the moment of impact. A soldier can even abort the attack if civilians enter the target zone. As a result, the missile teams can perform the same role as a precision airstrike, but much faster and cheaper.
2016-11-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive