Elbit Systems Awarded $70 Million Contract to Supply Rockets to a European Country

By ARIE EGOZI

Defence Industry

Haifa / Tel Aviv: Israeli company Elbit Systems was awarded a contract of approximately $70 million to supply rockets to the armed forces of a European country. The contract will be performed over a period of 3 years.

Under the contract, Elbit Systems will supply 122mm extended-range rockets that are intended to significantly increase the performance and effectiveness of operations by allowing ground forces to concentrate fire at an increased range of up to 40 kilometres. The rocket offers simple autonomous operation in various weather conditions and can be ready to be launched in less than one minute. Israeli sources said that the Rockets are part of Elbit’s Accular family of ground – ground rockets.

According to Elbit Systems, the Accular is a highly accurate, combat-proven guided rocket designed to support ground forces and the artillery rocket addresses urban warfare requirements and the need for near-real-time responsiveness. Accular can neutralize targets to a range of up to 40km and is especially required in areas where the use of traditional artillery is limited by terrain, distance and accuracy.  The Accular guided rocket offers simple autonomous operation under any weather conditions and can be ready to fire in less than one minute.

The rocket is equipped with a unitary penetration or controlled fragmentation warhead, capable of neutralizing most of the artillery targets on the modern battlefield with minimum collateral damage. The Accular has two operational versions: The 122mm, which is a common diameter in rocket artillery, has a range of 35km with a 20kg warhead and is adaptable to existing platforms. According to Elbit, the Accular 122mm seamlessly integrates with a wide variety of traditional launchers. The other version is a 160mm one that has a range of 40km and a 35kg warhead.