Israeli Luz missile

Petrus

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Here is a photo showing launchers of the Luz missile.

[link dead - Admin]

And at http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/missile/rumsfeld/pt2_carus2.htm there is a few sentences on the missile:

The origins of the Israeli ballistic missile program date to several rocket
and missile programs in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Israel began
development of guided missiles in 1954, and in 1958 Israel's military
research and development establishment, Rafael, tested a land attack
missile known as the Luz. This missile was proposed in ground-to-ground,
air-to-ground, and ship-to-ship versions. The ground-launched version had a
range of about 27 kilometers. The Artillery Corps fielded one battery of
the missiles, although it apparently was not viewed favorably by the army's
leadership. In addition, the ship-launched version entered formal
development, but the program was abandoned and replaced by the system that
came to be known as the Gabriel (developed by Israel Aircraft Industries
with Israel Military Industries producing the rocket motors). Rafael had
problems with the rocket motors, and never resolved the guidance problems.

Do you know more about the Luz missiel? Especially I would be grateful for any info on its specifications.

Best regards,
Piotr
 
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Well, according to Missiles of the World, 1980 Michael J.H. Taylor, p. 63..

Luz-1

Air to Surface Missile: In Production

Primary Contractors: Rafael Armament Development Authority and Israel Aircraft Industries
Guidance: Electro-Optic
Launch Weight: Possible 441lbs (200kg)
Range: 50 miles (80km)

This book claims this missile began being developed in 1973, and was soon to be introduced for use by Kfir-C2 and F-4Es. It claims to have "confirmed" this but no images are given. It is intended for use against SAM launchers/vehicles.

Now that weight would suggest a Gabriel-derived origin, but that guidance and intended role and range sound eerily similar to the Popeye missile developed in the 80's (though the Popeye is MUCH larger than these given dimensions).

So we've got some conflicting information here, FAS claims it a predecessor of the Gabriel developed in the late 50's early 60's but according this book it didn't start development more than a decade later and intended solely as an Air to Surface weapon. Now, taking into account Israel's rather clever propaganda about weapons systems in the past (in the 70's there were reports of Israel developing a tank called "Sabra" which was in fact the Merkava, though the Sabra name would be used decades later) and typical 80's misidentification and I'd say the FAS account of the "Luz" is the more accurate one while the account in this book could be the first hint of the Popeye/AGM-142.
 
Wow, I can't say I've heard, let alone seen this missile before!
It's a huge missile!
I'm assuming that it's TEL are modified M3 Halftracks?

I'm interested to learn more!!!!!!


Regards
Pioneer
 
Pioneer said:
I'm assuming that it's TEL are modified M3 Halftracks?
In my archives the vehicle is called a Dodge WC-52.
It does definitely look like a WC, but which precise version is hard to tell, with the flatbed sides down.

DodgeWC-52wRafaelLUZmissiles1960.jpg

Dodge WC-52 w Rafael LUZ missiles 1960
 
Hi,
Sorry for resurrecting an old post, but just to confirm, the information given by Petrus is largely correct.
The Lutz (Luz) was developed as a ground to ground missile, but once IAI took over its development from Rafael, it became the precursor of the Gabriel. IAI also developed an air-launched anti-ship version, but it was never brought into service.
There used to be, perhaps still is, an example of the Lutz on display at the Israeli navy museum at Haifa.

Cheers
Marsh
 
hmm im curious if there is any relationship between this missile and early Gabriel anti ship missile ? Their aerodynamical feature looks similar.
 
hmm im curious if there is any relationship between this missile and early Gabriel anti ship missile ? Their aerodynamical feature looks similar.
Of course there is. RAFAEL was the developer of the missile but all the project later transferred to IAI for further development as anti ship missile and the result was the Gabriel.
 
hmm im curious if there is any relationship between this missile and early Gabriel anti ship missile ? Their aerodynamical feature looks similar.
Of course there is. RAFAEL was the developer of the missile but all the project later transferred to IAI for further development as anti ship missile and the result was the Gabriel.

The evolution is described in some detail in the book The Boats of Cherbourg by Abraham Rabinovich. The title of course refers to the "theft" of the Sa'ar missile boats from France and their delivery to Israel in December 1969. But the book also covers the development of Luz and its transition to Gabriel. THere's a certain degree of mythologizing, I think, but it's an interesting read.

Hm. Looks like a radar dish?

Pretty sure not. Luz was always MCLOS -- the operator tracked flares at the base of the missile using a very large set of binoculars on a mount and steered it to the target using a radio command link. Probably this is something related to warhead fuzing.
 
The evolution is described in some detail in the book The Boats of Cherbourg by Abraham Rabinovich. The title of course refers to the "theft" of the Sa'ar missile boats from France and their delivery to Israel in December 1969.
I've recently learned about that crazy whacky story. The missile boats had been build by Felix Amiot, once builder of bombers (before 1940).
The entire story from the beginning to the end is completely mind blowing. The minister of defense Michel Debré wanted to bomb the shit out of the fleeing boats but some inside Pompidou government disagree and the boats made it safe to Israel.
Imagine the sight, the French navy and aviation bombing the hell out of israel ships... out of the atlantic coast, and then in the mediterranean sea... dear gosh.
 
The Luz primarily was to have three versions: ship-to-ship, coast-to-ship and air-to-ship. The latter was dropped quite early in the missile development, so the two other remained, the coast-to-ship actually entering service with 422th Artillery Battalion, but never used operationally during the 1967 war, after which it was retired.

The ship-to-ship variant was to arm Israeli Z-class destroyers (and perhaps ships that would enter service later). Each destroyer was to have two fixed lanchers in the bow and two trainable triple launchers replacing torpedo tubes (eight launchers in total). The fixed launchers would fire missiles during closing the enemy, others would fire their missiles while the ship would be at closer range from the enemy manoeuvering during battle. The missile's warhead was an equivalent of the 8-inch gun projectile, that would give the Israeli ships quite a punch against the Skoryi-class destroyers of the Egyptian (and perhaps Syrian) navy. Guidance obviously was based upon optical tracking and manual joystrick-steering. The Israeli navy wanted something that could have been used in night or inclement weather, and that could been fired in salvos (CLOS guidance meant sigle-channel system; a destroyer might have had more than one guidance station, but this is my pure speculation), so demanded some sort of a radar guidance. That demand was rejected by the Israeli treasury, for it was considered (quite rightly) more expensive than simple optical system.

Trial firings from destroyers proved that the navy had been actually right. To manually steer the missile from a ship, even while the system had a stabilisation mechanism in it, was almost impossible. Taking into considerations the Luz's operational limitations (day-only use, no salvo-firing etc.) the system was rejected and a decision to built an advanced radar-guided replacement, which soon became the Gabriel, was made. Meanwhile the Israeli navy developed a concept of the missile boat, so the new missile was to arm that class of ships, not destroyers.

Below you'll find photos of the Luz and its box launcher that was developed to be mounted on destroyers (note that the later Gabriel launcher was quite different) as well as photos of a trial installation on an destroyer.

Source: https://he.rafael.co.il/history/חבלי-הסבת-טיל-קרקע-קרקע-לוז-לטיל-ים-י/, other webpages at he.rafael.co.il/history (plus document from my library).
 

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Interesting. I've definitely seen that "Luz fired from a destroyer" pic identified as Gabriel in a couple of sources. Given the general security around Israeli developments in this timeframe, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
 
Interesting. I've definitely seen that "Luz fired from a destroyer" pic identified as Gabriel in a couple of sources.
The Gabriel was an evolution of the Luz, and visually very similar. See photo below.
And as I remember, until rather late, the Luz wasn't known at all. So any photo would be attributed to the Gabriel.
 

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