Photo: Lockheed Martin
Defense contractor Lockheed Martin and the American military call it the Spike Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Range Precision Munitions Directed Requirement, but America's fighting force and its enemies will probably just refer to it as the Spike. And it's a brand new missile that will be fielded starting next year on the newest variant of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, the V6.
The Spike NLOS is a brand-new weapon developed by the American company as a means to give American soldiers a deadlier reach from further away. A rocket-motor-powered missile by trade, the thing can be fired at enemy targets from as far out as 20 miles (32 km).
That's a huge distance by any standards, but one the Spike can easily cover while always keeping an eye on its target by using electro-optical and infrared guidance hardware. It can change its direction in flight, thanks to the seeker and wireless datalink systems it comes equipped with, meaning there's no actual escaping the thing once it heads your way.
Lockheed Martin has been at it testing the thing for a while now. In January this year, for instance, the Apache V6 fired the missile, two of them in fact, for the first time, targeting stationary (and imaginary) enemies located in a field at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. This test, a successful one, opened the doors for the weapon's qualification testing.
Then in May we got word of another defense contractor, Oshkosh, integrating the Spike missile onto a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) vehicle. And the year is approaching its end, we're back to seeing the missile in action from the Apache platform.
At the end of last week Lockheed Martin announced it had completed yet another test firing of the Spike from the Apache, one that cleared the path for the weapon's airworthiness release. What that means is that the U.S. military is now confident the missile works as advertised, and it will start fielding it on the Apache fleet as soon as the fall of next year.
The test took place at the same Yuma Proving Ground and lasted for five days. An Apache V6 was used to fire no less than eight Spikes "at a variety of targets" whose nature was not disclosed, but were representative enough to prove the missile's "different mission set capabilities across multiple scenarios."
Now that this hurdle is out of the way, the company is gearing up to start training the U.S. Army pilots to properly use the thing. By September 2024, at least 18 Apache V6 helicopters should be fitted with it.
Spike will thus join an already deadly arsenal deployed on the flying killing machine, which also comprises Hellfire missiles, 2.75-inch rockets, and 30 mm chain gun rounds.
That's a huge distance by any standards, but one the Spike can easily cover while always keeping an eye on its target by using electro-optical and infrared guidance hardware. It can change its direction in flight, thanks to the seeker and wireless datalink systems it comes equipped with, meaning there's no actual escaping the thing once it heads your way.
Lockheed Martin has been at it testing the thing for a while now. In January this year, for instance, the Apache V6 fired the missile, two of them in fact, for the first time, targeting stationary (and imaginary) enemies located in a field at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. This test, a successful one, opened the doors for the weapon's qualification testing.
Then in May we got word of another defense contractor, Oshkosh, integrating the Spike missile onto a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) vehicle. And the year is approaching its end, we're back to seeing the missile in action from the Apache platform.
At the end of last week Lockheed Martin announced it had completed yet another test firing of the Spike from the Apache, one that cleared the path for the weapon's airworthiness release. What that means is that the U.S. military is now confident the missile works as advertised, and it will start fielding it on the Apache fleet as soon as the fall of next year.
The test took place at the same Yuma Proving Ground and lasted for five days. An Apache V6 was used to fire no less than eight Spikes "at a variety of targets" whose nature was not disclosed, but were representative enough to prove the missile's "different mission set capabilities across multiple scenarios."
Now that this hurdle is out of the way, the company is gearing up to start training the U.S. Army pilots to properly use the thing. By September 2024, at least 18 Apache V6 helicopters should be fitted with it.
Spike will thus join an already deadly arsenal deployed on the flying killing machine, which also comprises Hellfire missiles, 2.75-inch rockets, and 30 mm chain gun rounds.
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