Speed and Strike

Yunus Dar

Global defence companies are increasingly investing their resources in developing hypersonics, laser weapons, electronic warfare and Artificial Intelligence. Touted as the weapons of the future, these are being developed by two powers, China and Russia, besides the US, who have already tested them. While the US acknowledges it is behind the race in this domain, the country has allocated more than USD2.5 billion in department of defense (DoD) contracts to Lockheed Martin for work on hypersonic weapons. In the modern war domain, speed is the new stealth.

SPEAR launch from F-35 internal weapons bay

Electronic warfare is also significantly changing the landscape of air-launched weapons. The technology uses radio, infrared or radar signals to confuse or disable an adversary’s electronics. Added to that, the laser weapons, which are invisible to the naked eye, have the ability to demolish targets at the speed of light with perfect precision. Acting as a directed-energy platform, laser weapons can strike repeatedly, like an endless supply of ammunition.

The weapons company, MBDA, was recently awarded a contract to arm the SPEAR cruise missile with electronic warfare, acting as networked missiles to infiltrate enemy air defences. The era of highly networked air-launched weapons, swarming together, is fast approaching. MBDA is adding the electronic warfare variant to its Select Precision Effects at Range Capability Three (SPEAR-3) mini-cruise missile. “The new SPEAR-EW will complement the SPEAR network enabled miniature cruise missile, which is designed to precisely engage long-range, mobile, fleeting and re-locatable targets in all weathers, day or night, in the presence of countermeasures, obscurants and camouflage, while ensuring a safe stand-off range between the aircraft and enemy air defences,” the company said.

SPEAR-3 has been the most popular precision-guided munition, which chooses its own targets once it flies to the target area. The target identification can also hap