Morocco’s Armed Forces continue its plans to strengthen the Moroccan military arsenal with new defense systems, and it is currently evaluating a new Israeli air defense system.
According to media reports, Morocco is interested in the Spyder air defense system which is developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems in Israel.
The Spyder is an air defense system capable of defending strategic points, mobile forces, and urban centers from all air threats, including ballistic missiles in some versions of the system.
It has the ability to engage multiple targets to deal with saturated attacks carried out by suicide UAVs, cruise missiles, and glide bombs.
It includes a family of short, medium, and long-range missiles, the Spyder-LR with a range of up to 80 km. It is based on Python-5 missiles with an electro-optical seeker that combines dual-band thermal imaging (IIR) and CCD, as well as I-Derby-ER missiles with a double-pulse motor for longer ranges.
The Spyder-SR/ER version has a range between 20 and 40 km, while the SPYDER-MR/LR version reaches between 60 and 80 km. incorporating a launcher motor ( booster) into the missiles.
It is possible that the version that Morocco intends to operate is short to medium-range Spyder-SR/ER with the ELM-2106 radar in the L band and a range of 180 km.
Worth mentioning that Morocco signed last year a deal with the Israeli company of IAI in order to acquire the Barak-MX air defense system. The normalization of relations between Tel Aviv and Rabat has helped the latter to add Israel as a new supplier of weapons.
