Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group that dominates southern Lebanon, used a new Iranian anti-tank guided missile in an assault on a border outpost.
As reported by defense and aviation journalist Babak Taghvaee, Hezbollah uses the Almas (Diamond) anti-tank missile, which is an Iranian clone of the Israeli Rafael Spike-MR top attack anti-tank missile system.
“They used an Almas against an IDF’s surveillance post at the border with Lebanon,” noted Taghvaee on X.
Also was posted a video depicting the missile’s launch, its rapid ascent, and its trajectory toward an Israeli surveillance outpost situated on a cliff-side along the Lebanon-Israel border.
According to information available on the U.S. Army’s TRADOC website, the Almas missile is a tube-launched, surface-to-surface, and air-to-surface weapon. It relies on wire and infrared (IR) guidance and has a fire-and-forget capability. It is a reverse-engineered copy of the Israeli Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) system.
The Almas missile features a tandem warhead, with the front warhead positioned just behind the homing head in the missile’s nose. Its operational range extends to 8 kilometers.
This weapon system is believed to have been developed through the reverse engineering of Spike missiles that fell into Hezbollah’s hands during its 2006 conflict with Israel. Subsequently, these missiles are sent to Iran for analysis and replication. The Almas missile was unveiled in 2021 and currently encompasses man-portable, air-launched, and ground/surface vehicle-launched variants in production.
About Almas ATGM
This is the Iranian Almas (Dimond), a High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT), tube-launched, surface-to-surface and air-to-surface, wire and Infrared (IR) guided, fire-and-forget, reversed engineered copy of the Israeli Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) system.
The missile has a tandem warhead, with the forward warhead located just behind the homing head in the missile nose. For use with the Tripod Ground Launcher, the missile and launch tube are connected to the tripod.
The Command Launching Unit (CLU) is connected to the missile. The clip-on sight unit is connected, the missile is switched on and the nose-mounted seeker begins the lock-on sequence.
The missile is fired and the fins are deployed. In the fire-and-forget mode the missile stays locked onto the original target until impact.
In the fire-observe-and-update mode, the fibre-optic two-way link allows visual communication between the launcher and the missile seeker.
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