Latvia will purchase Israeli Spike anti-tank missile from EuroSpike.

According to the newspaper website The Baltic Times, the Minister of Defense of Latvia will sign an agreement with the German Company EuroSpike GmbH to purchase the Israeli-made Spike anti-tank missile. EuroSpike is the prime contractor to market the Spike missile family for European customers.

Spike-LR uses by Polish soldiers (Picture source Rafael)

The development of anti-tank capabilities is one of the main project of the Latvian Defense forces, which will be used for infantry units but also mounted on tracked reconnaissance armoured vehicle CVRT. It is planned that Spike anti-tank missile could enter in service with Latvian armed forces by 2023.

Currently, the Spike missile is used by 28 countries in the world including, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain and United Kingdom in different configurations.

EuroSpike GmbH is a joint venture company of Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co. KG (Überlingen, Germany), Rheinmetall Defence Electronics GmbH (Bremen, Germany) and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. (Haifa, Israel).

The SPIKE Family consists of missiles suited for land, air and sea platforms, multiple ranges and a variety of targets. The missiles in this family have sophisticated electro-optic CCD or IIR sensors for day/night all-weather operation, as well as a tandem warhead. Spike is a fire-and-forget missile with lock-on before launch and automatic self-guidance. The missile is equipped with an imaging infrared seeker. The NLOS (Non Line Of Sight)version of the Spike missile has a maximum firing range of 25 km.

Non-line of sight is a term often used when the radio transmitter and receiver are not in the direct visual line of sight, and this is dealt with by the use of multiple paths in signal propagation.

There is two main types of Spike missile, the SPIKE-ER which is an extended-range, multi-purpose anti-armor missile system designed for mounting on various platforms, including helicopters, fast boats and combat vehicles. The SPIKE-MR and SPIKE-LR which is the man-portable version in the Spike family.