The system can be installed on light combat vehicles, including Humvees and jeeps, due to its light weight and can be carried by helicopter.
By YAAKOV LAPPINThe Spear mortar-firing system, produced by Elbit Systems, can be installed on light combat vehicles.(photo credit: ELBIT)
Elbit Systems has unveiled a mortar-firing system called Spear, which has entered service in the IDF and other militaries.The system can be installed on light combat vehicles, including Humvees and jeeps, due to its lightweight gun barrel firing recoil loads which weigh less than 10 tons.Firing 120 mm. mortars, the system – described by Elbit as a fully autonomous soft-recoil mortar system – “significantly improves the maneuverability and operational performance of infantry forces, as it delivers immediate indirect artillery support for effectively engaging a wide range of targets,” Elbit added.The system’s light weight also enables helicopter and cargo aircraft transportability, allowing “rapid deployment in both close-range and Special Forces counterinsurgency operations,” Elbit said.It comes with technology for fire control, automatic aiming and propulsion, and navigation, meaning that the weapon is fully autonomous and highly accurate, the company stated.Yehuda Vered, general manager of Elbit Systems Land and C4I, said the mortar-firing platform is “already in use by the IDF and other leading armed forces around the world.”In March, senior IDF sources said 40 percent of artillery shells are being converted into precision shells that can accurately strike specific buildings from 40 kilometers away – a 150 percent increase in range from the older shells.The IDF is also expected to soon choose a new standard artillery gun.The upgrades will mean that a battalion commander on the ground who identifies threats in a Lebanese village dozens of kilometers away does not need to call in the air force and wait.He will be able to immediately direct precision artillery fire at a building of his choice.
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