SINGAPORE—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, which was publicly unveiled at this week's Singapore Airshow.
Proteus General Manager Ron Tryfus tells Aviation Week's 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.
Blue Spear is based on the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Gabriel. Tryfus says the missile will evolve as the partners add capability improvements. 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 in 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 missile’s software was developed with the support of algorithms and data analytics, but did not go into details. Other seeker heads also are 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.
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