U.S. Army turns light tactical vehicle into missile launcher

U.S. Army infantry soldiers have fired Spike NLOS long-range missiles from a light, air-droppable utility vehicle for the first time, completing 17 engagements in a three-day live-fire demonstration at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, Lockheed Martin said. All of the shots were launched from an Infantry Squad Vehicle – Utility, or ISV-U, a version of the U.S. Army’s light, open-top truck built to move infantry squads. Lockheed Martin, which offers the Israeli-designed missile to the U.S. Army, announced the results on Oct. 20, 2026, without giving the exact dates of the firings or how many hit their targets. Spike NLOS, made by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is a precision-guided missile that can hit targets the shooter cannot see directly. It sends live video back to the operator during flight, so soldiers can steer it onto a target hidden behind hills or buildings, or change targets while the missile is in the air. Rafael lists its range from ground launchers at roughly 30 km (19 miles), far beyond the reach of the shoulder-fired Javelin infantry carry today. Lockheed Martin said soldiers fired most of the 17 shots against simulated targets at different ranges, and that troops completed their training on the system and the live firing in the same week. Some of the soldiers came from the U.S. Army’s Transformation in Contact units, brigades that are testing new equipment and giving feedback before it is fielded more widely. Photo by Lockheed Martin “This demonstration represents a critical milestone for Spike NLOS, showing that our infantry partners can confidently employ a long-range precision missile,” said Casey Walsh, program director at Lockheed Martin Multi-Domain Missile Systems. The firings support the U.S. Army’s Mobile-Long Range Precision Strike Missile requirement, an effort to give light infantry formations their own long-range precision strike weapon. The service is converting infantry brigades into Mobile Brigade Combat Teams that ride in light vehicles such as the ISV, and the missile would give those units a way to hit armored vehicles, artillery and command posts well beyond the range of their other weapons. Lockheed Martin won the first phase of the competition in August 2025, after three Spike NLOS missiles fired from a vehicle at Dugway hit their targets, two of them without a direct line of sight. In October 2025, it received a $30 million follow-on award for the second phase, which covered building hardware for safety testing and integrating the missile on the utility vehicle. Photo by Lockheed Martin The U.S. Army qualified Spike NLOS for the AH-64E Apache attack helicopter, and The Defence Blog has reported on its integration on the helicopter. U.S. Special Operations Command has also fielded it on the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. “The live‑fire data and soldier feedback gathered here will support the shaping of the final M‑LRPSM requirements and accelerate the fielding of a game‑changing long‑range precision strike capability,” said Walsh. Lockheed Martin said further validation testing will take place over the next year before the program moves into its third phase, when initial production begins and the final prototypes are delivered to the U.S. Army. The company did not say how many systems the U.S. Army plans to buy.