UK MoD announced the test firing of the SPEAR mini cruise missile from an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon, which hit the target tank successfully.
SPEAR navigated towards and hit the target with the help of its mmW Radar seeker. The missile was previously announced to have a tri-mode seeker combining mmWR, IIR, and laser seekers. The test hints at the tri-mode seeker either being scrapped for cost reasons or reserved for later phases.
SPEAR is a development of the long-serving Brimstone air-to-surface missile used by RAF fighter jets. Despite the similar dimensions, SPEAR sports a range of 100+ km thanks to the usage of a turbojet engine and the wing kit.
The missile is planned for F-35B STOVL fighters of the Royal Navy and Eurofighter Typhoon fighters of the RAF.
Similar developments to SPEAR are KUZGUN-TJ of Turkiye and SPICE-250 ER of Israel.
Mini cruise missiles are intended to be low-cost alternatives to full-sized ones. Due to higher carriage counts and lower cost, they can be described as more optimal against vehicles or other soft targets for destruction while offering the opportunity of saturation against well-defended targets like warships.
