Israel is starting to play against the world's largest weapons companies. The chances of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. to supply large quantities of its Spike anti-tank missile to the French Army has recently increased, according to "Defense News". Rafael is competing against US giants Lockheed-Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) and Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) in the tender.
Until a short time ago, the Javelin missile, jointly built by Lockheed-Martin and Raytheon, was thought to be the preferred choice of France's Delegation generale pour l’armement (DGA) for the French Army's next-generation anti-tank missile. The situation in Paris has apparently changed, however. The Russian Chrisanthem is not even considered.
I am very impressed by my country. I am also sad that it came too late to save my people in Europe.
1 comments:
According to Wikipedia depending on the version the Javelin has an effective range of 75m to 2500m. The various versions of the Spike have an effective range of 800m to 8,000m. The Spike also has a special version for helicopters that has a range of 25km.
All things being equal I suspect that the Israeli version is cheaper than the Javelin. I think the Javelin is due for an update soon, but I don't know if the US Army is looking into the matter.
Despite the need to field yet another generation of anti-tank missiles, the US Army still has its pre-Javelin missiles in stock too. Weirdly enough Iran has reverse engineered the M47 Dragon and has fielded it. Poring over Wikipedia I am amazed at the amount of American equipment the Iranians seem to desire. In a lot of cases the Iranians either keep their American equipment going for far longer than it was designed for (F-14 fighter jet) or make indigenous copies of our weapons. I fond this remarkable since the Iranians would be better served licensing Russian designs which are current instead of copying American yestertech.
Post a Comment