Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveiled a new lightweight short-range missile called the Teaser at the 2024 Association of the US Army (AUSA) exhibition, held in Washington, DC, from 14 to 16 October.
The Teaser is described as an automatic command-to-line-of-sight (ACLOS) individual assault missile for infantry forces that is designed to attack ground forces, structures, lightly armoured vehicles and low-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. The missile can be shoulder launched, using a sight attached to a disposable launcher, or tube-launched from a vehicle, in which case the user employs the Teaser sight to remotely guide the missile to its objective. Because the Teaser sight uses internal day and night vision channels or an external video source to direct the missile to its target, it is not affected by a GNSS-denied environment.
Moreover, an IAI executive explained to ESD at AUSA on 15 October that, because the missile travels at 200 m/s over its effective engagement range of up to 2,500 m, the short engagement time leaves the target with very little time to try and jam the missile’s low-probability-of-intercept communication link.
Just 70 cm long with a diameter of 8.4 cm, the Teaser carries a 1 kg warhead of which 750 g is explosive material, giving the weapon a high payload-to-weight ratio (IAI has not specified the actual weight of the missile).
“Simplicity is very important for this missile,” the IAI executive told ESD, explaining that training a soldier to use the weapon would only tale one or two days. Because IAI opted not to employ a laser seeker for the Teaser, it also has a low unit cost of around USD 15,000 (EUR 13,782).
The Teaser features a first stage that launches the missile electrically before its main rocket engine is initiated, meaning that the missile can be launched from inside a building.
The IAI executive noted that the company is studying the possibility of producing an anti-armour version of the Teaser, but that such a missile would probably need to take a larger diameter in order for the shaped-charge warhead to work.
He added that IAI as a company is amenable to customers having missiles locally produced, pointing out with regard to the US market that the Teaser’s rocket engine is produced by Stark Aerospace in Mississippi.
