http://aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_aerospacedaily_story.jsp?id=news/navy05063.xmlNavy Plans To Adapt Spike Missile To Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
By Marc Selinger
A low-cost, shoulder-launched missile the U.S. Navy Department is developing for the Marine Corps and special operations forces eventually will be adapted for use on unmanned aerial vehicles, according to program representatives.
The Naval Air Warfare Center's Weapons Division is developing the Spike missile and launcher system initially for use by people on the ground. The system is envisioned as a safer, more accurate alternative to rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) and as a relatively inexpensive complement to the man-portable Javelin anti-tank missile.
While RPGs are unguided and have a range of only a few hundred yards, Spike will be guided with a laser designator or electro-optical imaging and have a range of about two miles.
A Javelin missile costs about $75,000. By comparison, a Spike missile is expected to cost only about $4,000. While the Javelin launcher costs about $125,000, the Spike launcher will have an estimated price tag of just $6,000.
Spike is designed to destroy unarmored or lightly armored vehicles, mobile anti-aircraft systems and slow-moving helicopters. It also will have urban warfare applications because the missile will be able to go through a window before exploding.
Although Javelin is capable of destroying such soft targets, it makes more sense to use a lower-cost missile for that purpose and save Javelin for heavily armored targets, according to Spike program representatives, who displayed their system at a recent technology demonstration on Capitol Hill.
"You don't really want to shoot $75,000 missiles at Jeeps," said Steven Felix, the Navy Department's project manager for Spike.
The Spike system is supposed to be small and light - three missiles and a launcher could fit in a standard military backpack.
Spike is expected to move into the system development and demonstration (SDD) phase near the end of calendar 2003 and enter production within about two or three years.
Besides aiding forces on the ground, Spike also could serve as a low-cost complement to the Hellfire air-to-ground, anti-tank missile, another relatively expensive weapon that has been successfully fired in combat from Predator UAVs, program representatives said.
John Baylouny, vice president of DRS Technologies, which has been helping the Navy develop Spike, said the Spike missile could be used on almost any UAV and that "future spirals" in the program are expected to involve putting Spike on unmanned aircraft.