Israel med konkurrent til Naval Strike Missile - DefenseMirror / AW&ST

Rafael to Unveil New Long-Range Air-To-Surface Missile at Farnborough Airshow

•  Our Bureau

•  06:43 AM, July 14, 2022

 

Ice Breaker air-to-surface missile @Rafael

Israel’s Rafael said it will present its new Ice Breaker air-to-surface missile at the upcoming Farnborough International Airshow (July 18-22) in the UK.

The 5th generation long-range, autonomous, precision-guided missile system enables significant attack performance against a variety of high-value land, and sea targets. Weighing less than 400kg, the Ice Breaker has a length of about 4m and range of about 300km. It can reach high subsonic velocity and can carry warhead 250lb.

This unveiling comes one year since the company introduced the Sea Breaker, which serves as the naval and land-based version of the all-encompassing Ice Breaker. Ice Breaker is resilient to electronic countermeasures and is fully operational in GNSS-denied arenas.

The new missile provides surgical, pinpoint precision strike capabilities from standoff ranges of up to 300 km. It features an advanced Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) seeker, ideal for stationary or moving land and maritime target engagement in advanced Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) arenas.

It is compatible with various aerial platforms, including jet fighters, light aircraft, and helicopters, and is fully operational across all weather conditions. The missile’s datalink supports real-time man-in-the-loop decision-making and tactical updates, with mid-flight abort and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) capabilities. Employing RAFAEL’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Ice Breaker performs deep-learning and big data-based scene-matching, enabling Automatic Target Acquisition (ATA) and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR).

Flying at high subsonic speeds, Ice Breaker has a multi-directional, synchronized full sphere attack capability, based on predefined attack plans, according to waypoints, azimuth, impact angle and aim-point selection.

It transforms light platforms (planes, helicopters, and ships) into dominating fighting machines, enlarging the stand-off capability of high-end platforms.

Rafael Unveils New Air-Launched Cruise Missile

Steve Trimble July 17, 2022

Credit: Rafael

FARNBOROUGH—State-owned Israeli contractor Rafael will unveil an air-launched version of the Sea Breaker powered munition at Farnborough Airshow. 

A promotional video shows a Lockheed Martin F-16 releasing the new Ice Breaker cruise missile, which ignites a turbojet engine and unfolds a wing kit. Rafael says Ice Breaker's 250-lb. warhead can hit targets at up to 300 km (186 mi.) away. 

The missile also could be launched from a wide range of combat aircraft, including a heavy fighter like the Boeing F-15, light fighters like the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano and helicopters, according to the video. 

The aircraft uses an onboard imaging infrared seeker for moving targets, and the optical sensor also can be used in areas where satellite-based navigation is being jammed. 

A data link aboard the Ice Breaker can receive mid-flight updates and send back information about the target area.

Steve Trimble

Steve covers military aviation, missiles and space for the Aviation Week Network, based in Washington DC.