During a December 2016 test at China Lake, the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center’s Weapons Division-developed Spike missile, twice, demonstrated the capability of the missile to shoot down an Outlaw UAV with one shot.
Spike is a forward-firing miniature munition that can be launched from the ground or the air, and is being developed to be shoulder-fired.
Leading up to this test, the Spike project collaborated with the U.S. Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC) for a counter-UAV live fire exercise in 2013. The Spike launcher was mounted to a radar-queued gimbal, which maintained the target in the missile’s field of view while the Spike operator acquired, tracked and engaged the target.
Following the 2013 demonstration, ARDEC requested the Spike team’s participation in a transport convoy protection line of defense using a similar gimbal system. The Army provided a proximity fuze for integration into the missile and the incorporation of that fuze enabled the Spike missile to either contact or proximity fuze on a target. In December, the Spike team demonstrated the effectiveness of those fuzes on two Outlaw UAVs.
“The team worked really hard to get us to the point where everything was smooth,” said Spike project manager Gavin Swanson. “Come test day, there wasn’t anything in our way.”
NAWCWD said its project engineers continue to make improvements to their fire control suite, processes for safer assembly as well as algorithm updates for better endgame performance and replacement verification tests that are cheaper, faster and equally as effective as the previous ones.
“When I began supporting Spike, I came in as an ESDP performing documentation and procedure updates,” Swanson said. “I noted how the team really believed in being able to hand a Soldier a light-weight, fire-and-forget capability. We’ve had a notion for years that UAVs would be a problem and I think we’re well-placed to have an imminent solution to that threat.”