WhipShot – Low Cost Guided Weapon from IMI
IMI is unveiling the Whipshot, a guided weapon developed for light aircraft, offering operators of light aircraft affordable precision firepower. IMI is discussing the new weapon with a number of aircraft manufacturers, including Embraer, which was recently selected to deliver the Super Tucano under the US Air Force Light Attack aircraft (LAAR) program. The WhipShot uses an airframe derived from the Mapatz missile, using the original missile guidance system. Instead of having an on-board guidance solution the missile is tracked by the launching aircraft EO target acquisition system, utilizing a wireless command link to update the weapon’s flight directing it to the target. According to IMI, the result is a highly affordable aerial weapon, that costs much less than the Hellfire, but offers the precision and control of a guided weapon. IMI also plans to offer an enhanced version equipped with an aided INS/GPS guidance.
IMI's Whip-Shot guided missile is designed as an affordable remotely controlled guided missile to be used by light attack aircraft. Photo: IMI
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at 18:44
Wondering how it compares to Hellfire in terms of size and carriage number on a launcher…
at 18:08
Hello Joe, managed to get more info, along with the image shown above. As far as I understand, being a Mapats derivative, Whip-Shot’s length should be 1450mm and 148 mm diameter; Hellfire is slightly bigger and heavier (1630 / 178 mm). Both use a tandem warhead, though the IMI model is expected to employ a multi-purpose (shaped charge + frag).
The WhipShot uses the laser beam riding guidance, employing the aircraft EO system, vs laser homing that requires a separate laser designation, by the aircraft or remote controlled, for the guidance of the Hellfire. The range of the WhipShot is expected to be slightly shorter, compared to the hellfire. IMI expects the cost of its missile to be about half that of the Hellfire, which sells at about $70K.
The missiles will be contained in an aerodynamically shaped pods designed for fixed wing aircraft, each carrying four missiles. This will offer an optimized configuration, compared to the Hellfire which uses the four missile rack designed for rotary wing aircraft.
at 10:30
IMI says, on their Internet site, that this Whip-Shot has a total weight of 15 kg, with warhead weighting 6 kg. Weren’t the “oryginal” anti-tank IMI’s Mapatz missiles heavier than that?
at 23:32
I wonder if it isn’t so, that this “new” IMI missile, the WhipShot, for marketing outside Israel described as an substantially less expensive, but otherwise equal to US Hellfire, with the purpose to arm light aircrafts, is in the reality a derivate of IAF’s missiles equipping IAF’s drones/UAVs, like the Elbit’s Hermes-450, Hermes-900, and some other IAF’s UAVs.