A 41 Squadron Eurofighter TYPHOON of the Royal Air Force has been completed the first guided drop of the SPEAR 3 miniature stand-off missile, in development with a particular focus on equipping the British F-35Bs.

The trial was completed in Sweden, at the Vidsel range, with the assistance of a GRIPEN as chase plane. The weapon, not fitted with its warhead, successfully hit a tank target. This new weapon, visually and conceptually very similar to the American Small Diameter Bomb 2 (GBU-53/B STORMBREAKER), is a flexible stand-off weapon with a combined millimetric radar and semi active laser seeker and a warhead that makes it suitable for hitting a wide range of relocatable or even moving targets, including main battle tanks.

The main attribute that sets SPEAR apart from the GBU-53/B is the fact that it is powered by a TJ-150 turbojet engine, unlike SDB 2 which is a purely gliding weapon. Having an engine ensures SPEAR 3 can achieve longer engagement ranges and, importantly, can achieve stand-off range even when launched at lower altitudes and/or in more challenging flight profiles and weather conditions.

The SPEAR exact range remains classified. Over time various figures have been given going from 100 to 180 km. In the latest press releases, the MOD talks about “100 km range”, while also giving 120 – 140 km range in the description of the weapon.

The MOD and MBDA increasingly refer to the weapon simply as SPEAR, while the formal designation SPEAR 3 comes from it being the 3rd weapon within the Royal Air Force’s Selective Precision Effects At Range (SPEAR) programme, where SPEAR 1 is the continued evolution of the Paveway IV bomb, 2 is the Brimstone missile, 4 is the Storm Shadow Mid Life Update and 5 is the Future Cruise & Anti-Ship Weapon.

SPEAR will be employed on quadruple racks for internal carry on the F-35B. At the moment, the MOD is still not openly talking about integrating the new weapon on TYPHOON, despite using the Eurofighter for the tests and development. It is hoped SPEAR 3 will be eventually confirmed for TYPHOON deployment with the Royal Air Force as part of the incoming Phase 4 Enhancement programme.

Spain is known to be planning a purchase of SPEAR 3 with TYPHOON in mind. Italy is also planning a SPEAR purchase: the weapon is part of the package of ammunition the Italian Navy intends to procure for its F-35B fleet and it’s not clear if any ambition for a TYPHOON integration exists.

On TYPHOON, SPEAR would be carried on triple racks, used for the first time for this test drop. Initial ground checks on TYPHOON had seen a single SPEAR munition connected directly to the jet’s own pylon. The triple rack itself is potentially significant news for the Eurofighter because it should be the Common Weapon Launcher, a system the RAF provided some initial funding for all the way back in 2015.

Similar, yet visibly different from the BRIMSTONE’s own existing triple rack, the CWL has ever since become a mainstay of all Eurofighter airshow mock-ups and Computer Graphic Images but to this day has not been actually fielded. The CWL, once fully integrated, would be capable of supporting 2 500 lbs-class bombs or 3 BRIMSTONE or 3 SPEAR weapons. In terms of bombs, it has been represented or showcased with twin Paveway IV or Laser JDAM loads (respectively for UK and Germany). In theory, up to 4 CWL can be carried at once, using the innermost and outer pylons under the wings of TYPHOON. In practice, BRIMSTONE triple racks have so far only been integrated on the outer pylons, the same used also for this first SPEAR firing.

Development of SPEAR started in March 2016 when the UK MOD committed GBP411 million ($536 million) to a 4-year SPEAR Cap 3 Development Phase with MBDA UK. In late 2020, at the end of that phase, the MOD signed a GBP550 million contract for a “7-year” Demonstration and Manufacture phase. At the time, it was hoped that guided firings would begin within 18 months, but the programme has progresses considerably more slowly.

In the meanwhile, SPEAR has become the first MBDA weapon to get the “ORCHESTRIKE” artificial intelligence (AI) tool for collaborative strike weapons, which will enable these weapons to autonomously coordinate and collaborate to work around enemy defences and successfully strike priority targets.

An electronic warfare variant of SPEAR, the SPEAR EW, is also already in development. It maintains the exact same form factor but removes the glass seeker for the SAL. Leveraging the Leonardo UK BRITE CLOUD decoy, the SPEAR EW is intended to serve as a stand-in jammer. A graphic circulated in the past few years suggested the EW would be able to fly for as many as 420 km, including its loitering pattern for jamming, if launched from an F-35 at Mach 0.8 and 35k feet altitude. The UK MoD committed funding to sustain SPEAR EW development during DSEI 2023.

In 2021, SAAB and MBDA had also revealed plans to cooperate to create a SPEAR EW variant or derivative decoy leveraging SAAB’s AREXIS EW system.

An early conceptual proposal for launching SPEAR from VLS on ships also exists. 4 SPEAR munitions could be quad packed in a Sylver or MK41 cell, but would of course need a suitable booster for take-off.

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