During the Singapore Airshow 2024, scheduled for February 20-25, the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems presented, among other things, an autonomous, multi-role, precision long-range 5th generation missile for striking land and sea targets called Sea/Ice Breaker, as well as a high-energy laser weapon system dor air defense called Iron Beam.
Photos: Jakub-Link Lenczowski, MILMAG
Sea Breaker premiered on June 30, 2021, while Ice Breaker was revealed on July 12, 2022 during the Farnborough International Airshow in the United Kingdom.
Sea Breaker is a cruise missile with a range of up to 300 km. The weapon utilizes a modern imaging infrared (IIR) seeker and artificial intelligence algorithms to engage maritime targets in conditions of strong interference and enemy air defense saturation. Powered by a turbojet engine capable of high subsonic speeds, the missile is 4 meters long and weighs 400 kg, with 125 kg being the warhead.
The Sea Breakers use the same launch containers as those utilized by mobile launchers of the SPYDER air defense system. A typical land-based battery of the Sea Breakers consists of launcher vehicles, an ammunition vehicle, a support vehicle, and a command vehicle.
For maritime units, the weapon is intended to be deployable on both missile boats (with a displacement of over 100 tons) as well as larger corvettes and frigates. The missile launchers themselves are intended to be capable of integration with sensors specified by the users.
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Ice Breaker is an enhanced variant of Sea Breaker, offering full standardization across all fields of potential use. This missile is resistant to electronic countermeasures and has full operational capability in areas without access to signals from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
Ice Breaker is compatible with various aerial platforms, including multi-role combat aircraft, light aircraft, and helicopters, and has full operational capability in all weather conditions.
The second weapon system promoted in Singapore is Iron Beam, which is a 100 kW class high-energy laser weapon system (HELWS). It is the first of its kind laser system that has achieved documented interceptions of airborne threats. It is well on its way to become the first operational defense system that effectively intercepts a wide spectrum of threats – including rocket-assisted projectiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as swarms of mini-drones – with pinpoint accuracy, ranging from hundreds of meters to several kilometers.
Iron Beam, in its land-based version, was previously showcased at the AUSA 2022 exhibition in Washington, the Avalon Air Show 2023 in Australia, and the DSEI Japan 2023 in Japan. Meanwhile, the maritime variant was first presented at IMDEX 2023 in Singapore.
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In March 2022, Rafael, together with the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), successfully concluded a series of groundbreaking field tests – live firings – of a high-power laser system capable of intercepting threats moving at supersonic speeds.
Both the land-based and maritime variants can be integrated with existing air defense systems, such as Iron Dome, thus providing a cost-effective solution that complements the kinetic air defense capabilities.
Iron Beam