Israelis, Singaporeans make and sell surface-to-surface missiles in a year

Blue Spear surface-to-surface missile at Singapore Airshow 2022. (Colin Clark)

SINGAPORE AIR SHOW: Hard to match at first glance: Israel Aerospace Industries and Singapore Technology Engineering, one in Asia, the other in the Middle East. Dig deeper, though, and the idea of ​​combining ST’s superb hypersensitive weapons technology with IAI’s missile and algorithmic expertise begins to make sense.

Now, the companies are joined together in a joint venture called Proteus Advanced Systems, which designed the Blue Spear, a subsonic surf missile that can be fired from land or ships, with range shot 180 miles. The missile can be launched using a standard launcher that can be mounted on a ship or truck.

Ron Tryfus, the joint venture’s chief executive officer, made its first sale to Estonia last October, just a year after its founding, Ron Tryfus, its chief executive, told Breaking Defense on Thursday. He added that the joint venture has generated “tens of millions” in revenue, Keep an eye on more incoming customers.

How big is the potential market for this product? “If you’re just talking about the navy, there are thousands of missiles on the market mostly from older generations, right?” Tryfus said. “If you tackle the land composition, you add more potential.”

The radio frequency tuner, combined with algorithms, “provides us with precision accuracy with the ability to overcome challenges along the way,” says Tryfus. It can distinguish and avoid collisions with civilian ships, he said, and its ability to surf helps it from launch to impact, minimizing the chance it might be intercepted. “It gives you unique capabilities in today’s market,” he said.

Tryfus claims that Proteus is in discussions with other governments but will not disclose them. In general, however, he said they are talking to governments in Latin America, Europe and Asia. And IAI hopes to pursue more product opportunities with ST Engineering, he said, without going into specifics.