Early in 1999, the RAFAEL Armament Development Authority finally released details of their new Gill medium range fire-and-forget Anti-Tank Guided Weapon (ATGW) which it has developed to meet the requirements of the Israel Defence Force (IDF).

In the past the Gill has been referred to as the NT-G, the Spike as the NT-S and the much longer range Dandy as the NT-D. Few details of the latter have been released, although it is understood to be helicopter launched. It is believed that the NT-D shares some common components, for example the seekers, with the shorter range Gill and Spike that are already in service.

The Gill ATGW consists of the round in its sealed container (13 kg), tripod (2.9 kg) and command launch unit (CLU) with a clip on thermal night sight (9 kg).

The CLU with its day sight weighs 5 kg and has x 10 magnification and a 5° field of view. The thermal night sight weighs 4 kg and has wide and narrow fields of view.

The Gill missile has four folding fins at the rear and two wings towards the front and a tandem High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead to defeat tanks fitted with explosive reactive armour (ERA). In the nose is the CCD (Charge Coupled Device)/IIR (Imaging Infra-Red) seeker which is stated to be highly accurate.

In its fire-and-forget mode of operation, Gill has a minimum range of 200 m and a maximum range of 2,500 m. One of the key operational requirements laid down by the IDF were ease of operation, fire-and-forget capability and light weight. A two man team can easily backpack two Gill missiles, one tripod and one CLU.

All the Gill operator has to do is acquire the target, place the cross hairs of the sight on the target, activates the missile, locks the tracker on target and then launch the missile. This missile then automatically guides itself to the target.

Once the Gill leaves the launch tube the gunner can move to another firing position or clip on another missile and engage another target.

Once launched, the Gill missile adopts a lofted trajectory and then dives onto the target. Trials have shown that 95 per cent of Gill gunners hit the target with their first missile launched.

RAFAEL claim that Gill is immune to countermeasures and is an all weather system which is easy to deploy and operate.

When being used in the fibre optic mode the missile is known as Spike and has a maximum range of 4,000 m. The Gill and Spike missiles are the same missile and the same CLU is used. The latter also features a Built In Test capability.

The fibre optic mode was developed as at range of above 2,500 m there can be problems with missile lock on with the CCD/IIR seeker. The fibre optic provides a two way data link between the launcher and the missile and according to RAFAEL, gives pin point accuracy.

It also allows the missile to be fired from a reverse slope with the operator under cover. Although the primary role of Spike is anti-tank, it can also be used to attack slow flying helicopters and for battlefield damage assessment.

Production. In service with the Israel Defence Force.