the Israeli “Spyder” system in Morocco’s sights

In order to strengthen its ground-to-air defense capabilities, Morocco has quickly gone from being a country without medium or long-range anti-aircraft defense systems to a country combining multi-layer air defense systems of different origins.

With Rabat’s rapprochement with Israel, Israeli weapons systems have become a very serious option for the Moroccan army. In fact, a contract has already been signed for the purchase of batteries normally used in the Israeli Barak-MX multilayer air defense system, which has a range of up to 150 km with the ability to detect ballistic missiles.

The Spyder is an anti-aircraft defense system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. This system is capable of defending strategic points, mobile forces and urban centers against all airborne threats, including ballistic missiles. It has a multi-target capability to deal with overrun attacks from prowl ammo, cruise missiles or hover bombs.

It includes a range of short, medium and long range missiles, the Spyder-LR, with a range of up to 80 km. It is designed on the basis of Python-5 missiles with an electro-optical seeker combining dual-band thermal imaging (IIR) and CCD, as well as I-Derby-ER missiles with a double-pulse engine for longer distances.

The Spyder-SR/ER version has a range of 20-40 km, while the SPYDER-MR/LR version has a range of 60-80 km, thanks to the incorporation of a launch engine (booster) in the missiles. According to information from the same sourcesit is possible that the version that Morocco intends to use is the short or medium range Spyder-SR/ER, equipped with the ELM-2106 L-band radar and a range of 180 km.

The Spyder system is operated by eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates, the first Arab country to deploy it, as well as the Czech Republic, the first NATO member to implement the system. It is also possessed by the armed forces of Georgia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines.