The interest in the very advanced missile is part of the European awakening to the new defence needs created by the war in Ukraine.
Rafael uses international teaming agreements very successfully. The sales of the company’s family of Spike anti-tank missiles are soaring very much thanks to Eurospike GmbH, a joint venture between Diehl Defence GmbH & Co. KG, Rheinmetall Electronics GmbH and Rafael .
The unveiling of the 5th generation long-range, autonomous precision-guided cruise missile comes one year after the introduction of the Sea Breaker, which is designed for launch from land and ships.
According to Rafael, the Ice Breaker is an aerial force-multiplier designed to overcome modern warfare arena challenges through Rafael’s legacy of high-end precision-guided solutions.
The company says that Ice Breaker is resilient to electronic countermeasures and is fully operational in GNSS-denied arenas. Rafael says in an official announcement that the Ice Breaker provides surgical, pinpoint precision strike capabilities from standoff ranges up to 300 km.
Rafael also says that the cruise missile features an advanced IIR (Imaging Infra-Red) seeker, ideal for stationary or moving land and maritime target engagement in advanced Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) arenas.
The official release says that Ice Breaker is compatible with various aerial platforms including, jet fighters, light aircraft, helicopters, and is fully operational across all weather conditions. The missile’s datalink supports real-time man-in-the-loop decision-making and tactical updates, with midflight abort and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) capabilities.
The company says that the missile was developed, employing Rafael’s unique combat-proven artificial intelligence technology, deep learning and big data based scene-matching, enabling Automatic Target Acquisition (ATA) and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR).
Rafael says that the missile is flying at high subsonic speeds, and has a multi-directional, synchronized full-sphere attack capability, based on predefined attack plans, according to waypoints, azimuth, impact angle and aim point selection. This the Israeli company says ensures high probability of mission success. The Ice Breaker is 4 meters long and weighs 770 lbs , including a 250 lb. penetration, blast and fragmentation warhead.
Israeli defense sources said that Rafael is the main source for the Israeli airforce standoff weapon systems like the family of Spice gliding bombs. These systems are, according to foreign sources, used in many of the Israel airforce strikes on Iranian-related targets in Syria.
