A joint venture makes it the best of both worlds.
Chen Chuanren
Chen Chuanren/ShowNews
Proteus Advanced Systems, a joint venture between Israel Aerospace Industries and ST Engineering, is hoping to leverage each partner’s technological expertise to provide new capabilities for its Blue Spear anti-ship missile. The missile was publicly unveiled for the first time at the Singapore Airshow.
Proteus General Manager Ron Tryfus tells ShowNews that the company had to break into a condensed and long-established environment, but was able to “act quickly” and secure its first export deal with Estonia last year for the land-based variant.
The Blue Spear is based on the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Gabriel. Tryfus says the missile will evolve as either partner adds a capability improvement. Released information suggests that ST Engineering supplies the booster and warhead.
Not including the booster, the 760-kg (1,675-lb.) missile is 5.34 m (17.5 ft.) long, and possesses a 150-kg high explosive insensitive munitions warhead. The missile is propelled by an air-breathing turbojet engine fed with liquid jet fuel, enabling a 290-km (180-mi.) range at subsonic speeds.
The missile features sea-skimming capabilities, he says. As IAI is an air defense system manufacturer, it gives Proteus an advantage on learning how to defeat such radars.
Tryfus adds that the RF radio frequency seeker has a high-discrimination capability superior to that of any current product—especially crucial in congested waters. He hints that the design of the missile’s software was also developed with the support of algorithms and data analytics, but did not go into details. Other seeker heads are also under consideration.
Estonia’s land-based Blue Spear will be fitted in a truck-transportable 20-ft. container, with four missile tubes packed in, similar to the Russian 3M-54 Kalibr “Club” container-based launcher. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2023.
