LAHAT
Encyclopedia
Anti-tank guided missile
An anti-tank missile , anti-tank guided missile , anti-tank guided weapon or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily-armored military vehicles....
developed since 1992 and manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. It was designed primarily to be fired by Merkava
Merkava
The Merkava is a main battle tank used by the Israel Defense Forces. The tank began development in 1974 and was first introduced in 1978. Four main versions of the tank have been deployed. It was first used extensively in the 1982 Lebanon War...
tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s' 105 mm and 120 mm tank gun
Tank gun
A tank gun is the main armament of a tank. Modern tank guns are large-caliber high-velocity guns, capable of firing kinetic energy penetrators, high explosive anti-tank rounds, and in some cases guided missiles. Anti-aircraft guns can also be mounted to tanks.-Overview:Tank guns are a specific...
s, though it matches all types of 105 mm and 120 mm guns, including low recoil guns and low-weight guns of military armoured cars. It is also suitable for patrol ships, possibly modified for 105–106 mm recoilless rifle
Recoilless rifle
A recoilless rifle or recoilless gun is a lightweight weapon that fires a heavier projectile than would be practical to fire from a recoiling weapon of comparable size. Technically, only devices that use a rifled barrel are recoilless rifles. Smoothbore variants are recoilless guns...
s, UAVs
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...
, HMMWVs, and SPAAGs. Unlike other tank rounds, LAHAT does not need a tank gun for operation.
LAHAT has a semi-active laser guidance
Laser guidance
Laser guidance is a technique of guiding a missile or other projectile or vehicle to a target by means of a laser beam. Some laser guided systems utilise beam riding guidance, but most operate more similarly to semi-active radar homing . This technique is sometimes called SALH, for Semi-Active...
system, capable of both direct and indirect laser designation—the target can be laser-designated by the launching platform (i.e firing tank) or other platform (i.e. another tank, helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
, UAV, or forward scouting team), requiring minimal exposure in the firing position. With a low launch signature, the missile’s trajectory can be set to match either (top attack) armoured fighting vehicle
Armoured fighting vehicle
An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and armed with weapons. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked....
, warship, or helicopter gunship (direct attack) engagements.
It has a range of 8 km when launched from a ground platform, and up to 13 km, when deployed from high elevation. The missile hits the target at an accuracy of 0.7 meter CEP
Circular error probable
In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision...
and an angle of over 30 degrees, providing effective penetration of up to 800 mm of armor steel with its tandem warhead to deal with add-on reactive armor. LAHAT might also carry embedded active protection system
Active protection system
An active protection system is a system designed to prevent sensor-based weapons from acquiring and/or destroying a target....
countermeasure capabilities. In any tank the LAHAT is stowed like other rounds in the ammunition rack, and handled just like any other type of ammunition.