Spain’s Indra unveils Squall, a new low-cost cruise missile for ‘mass attacks’

Indra unveils new Squall low-cost cruise missile. (Credit: Indra).

MILAN — Spanish defense manufacturer Indra has unveiled a new, low-cost cruise missile for striking targets more than 300 kilometres (186 miles) away, the company says.

The company showcased the system, dubbed Squall, for the first time at the Unvex drone trade fair in Spain on Sept. 16.

In a press release, Indra did not indicate a price point. Still, it described the missile as a low-cost system for operations ranging from “surgical strikes involving a small number of units” to “mass attacks,” in which many would be deployed simultaneously to overwhelm adversarial defenses.

P er Indra, the Squall can be integrated into both land and naval platforms. The company stated that the system can fly at low altitudes to avoid enemy radars and can be equipped with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing guidance and navigation systems.

To date, the Spanish Armed Forces have no formal or publicly known requirement for such a missile, but there is growing demand across the globe for smaller strike weapons. And over the last year, d efense companies have been churning out models of what they market as low-cost weapons, reflecting lessons from drone and missile attrition wars such as the war in Ukraine and the Iran conflict about the unsustainability of relying on expensive missiles to counter cheaper threats.

Alongside Squall, the Spanish manufacturer also unveiled its Drizzle effector drone, which it says was developed to neutralize drones and hit “light assets” located at a maximum distance of 130 kilometres, or around 80 miles.

Indra公司推出新型低成本巡航导弹“暴风雨”。（图片来源：Indra公司）

米兰——西班牙国防制造商Indra公司表示，该公司推出了一种新型低成本巡航导弹，可打击300公里（186英里）以外的目标。

该公司于 9 月 16 日在西班牙举行的 Unvex 无人机贸易展上首次展示了名为 Squall 的系统。

在新闻稿中，Indra公司并未透露导弹的价格。不过，该公司表示，该导弹是一款低成本系统，可用于从“少量导弹参与的精准打击”到“大规模攻击”等多种作战行动，后者需要同时部署多枚导弹以突破敌方防御。

据Indra公司称，Squall无人机可集成到陆地和海上平台。该公司表示，该系统能够低空飞行以躲避敌方雷达，并可配备抗干扰和反欺骗制导导航系统。

迄今为止，西班牙武装部队尚未正式或公开提出对这类导弹的需求，但全球对小型打击武器的需求日益增长。过去一年，国防企业一直在大量生产他们标榜为低成本武器的型号，这反映了从乌克兰战争和伊朗冲突等无人机和导弹消耗战中吸取的教训：依靠昂贵的导弹来应对成本更低的威胁是不可持续的。

除了 Squall 之外，这家西班牙制造商还推出了其 Drizzle 效应无人机，据称该无人机是为摧毁无人机和打击最大距离 130 公里（约 80 英里）的“轻型目标”而开发的。