Tel Aviv: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) displayed the WIND DEMON, a new generation of air-to-surface cruise missile, combining new capabilities based on years of experience in missiles and loitering munition development.
IAI’s newly developed WIND DEMON missile offers a pragmatic response to the changing nature of warfare where affordable mass can deliver lethality. The WIND DEMON offers a novel and compelling capability based on a unique, modularised approach characterised by affordability, adaptability, and advanced capabilities to operate across warfare domains.
The WIND DEMON is fired from an airborne platform, such as helicopter and patrol aircraft, and follows a predetermined mission plan to meet a moving or stationary target at a range exceeding 200km. Platforms equipped with the WIND DEMON, wield advanced standoff capabilities.
WIND DEMON is a ‘fire and forget missile’ that also offers ‘man in the loop’ capabilities. This combination of capabilities allows the platform to approach the enemy at low altitudes from a distance, launch the missile, and disengage.
Equipped with an advanced day and night electro-optic and laser homing seekers, WIND DEMON delivers precise target detection, discrimination, and classification with pinpoint accuracy for day and night operations. The WIND DEMON warhead which exceeds 20kg, is adaptable for blast, fragmentation, and penetration effects. The WIND DEMON has a very low flight profile, enhancing its survivability by avoiding detection and disruption, in combination with its immune navigation suite.
Enhanced connectivity features enable real-time video transmission, person-in-the-loop control, and low altitude hold throughout the mission. Additionally, its selectable fast/slow/fast speed profile allows for high dash speed reactions and selective slow velocity approaches at points of interest.
Guy Barlev, EVP and General Manager of the Systems Missiles & Space Group, said, “We see a growing market demand for effective and affordable systems that will allow attacks in mass. WIND DEMON was designed to meet this market requirement. It offers significant capabilities at an affordable price point that allows customers to buy the systems in large quantities.”
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
