October 24, 2026: The German Navy recently tested an Israeli Lora ballistic missile and decided to buy more to equip its frigates. For more than fifty years, Israel has been developing ballistic and air-to-surface missiles for its own military as well as for export. These include ballistic missiles that can be launched from fighter-bombers.

For example, Rampage is a 14.7-meter-long, 570 kg air-to-surface missile with a 150 kg warhead. It has a range of 150-250 kilometers. The missile includes GPS/INS navigation systems. It is subsonic, with speeds ranging from 700 to 900 kilometers per hour. Rampage is based on Elbit’s EXTRA ground-to-ground missile.

Delilah is an 187 kg helicopter, fixed-wing aircraft, or surface-launched loitering cruise missile (LACM) with a range of 250- 300 kilometers. The missile costs about $500,000. The surface-launched version uses a rocket booster to get airborne. A small turbojet enables several hours of loitering to search for enemy radars, other ground targets, or moving ships at sea. A remote human controller decides which target to attack. The US developed Delilah in the 1980s and put it into service in the 1990s.

EXTRA (Extended Range Artillery) is a 570 kg, 306mm GPS-guided missile with a 150 km range and a 120 kg warhead. Each missile costs about $120,000. EXTRA entered service in 2016, uses a variety of launcher vehicles, and is like the American HIMARS and its GMLRS missile.

Gabriel is an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM). The latest version, Gabriel 5, entered service in 2020. The first version of Gabriel appeared in 1973 as a 430 kg anti-ship missile like the later (1977) American Harpoon but with a shorter range of 20 kilometers. Gabriel 2 appeared in 1976, and Gabriel 3 in 1978, with a range of 36 kilometers and a 30 percent heavier weight than Gabriel 1. Gabriel 3 was also available for aircraft use, with a 60-kilometer range. These early models sank nine enemy ships in the 1970s and were rightly feared by Israel’s enemies.

Israel did not need an anti-ship missile with a long range, like Harpoon, which could travel 120 kilometers, because Israel had a coastal navy that might have to fight neighbors like Egypt to the south or Lebanon to the north. From the start, Gabriel had a system that kept the missile a few meters above the water, making it hard to detect.

Gabriel 4 was different: it had a 200-kilometer range and a small turbojet, like cruise missiles, for sustained flight. Gabriel 4 weighed 960 kg, making it like a cruise missile. The Gabriel 4 warhead was much larger, but it kept the same multiple guidance systems as the earlier Gabriels. It took nearly two decades for the larger and much more capable Gabriel 5 to appear. The three guidance systems were upgraded but remained fire-and-forget, or fire-and-update, via an encrypted data link, midway to the target. Finally, they switched to fire-and-update as they approached the target area. The guidance system could detect the desired target and head for it. Gabriel 5 has more countermeasures for enemy electronic defenses, and each missile costs $5 million. Gabriel has been exported to 14 countries and has survived because a country under constant threat of attack developed it and could quickly modify its weapons to counter a threatening neighbor.

LORA is a 1.6-ton ballistic missile with a 430-kilometer range and a 570 kg warhead. Its guidance system includes GPS, INS, and a TV camera to ensure it hits the intended target. With just GPS/INS, the missile will land within five meters of the aiming point. LORA can be fired from various truck-mounted launchers. Israel does not use LORA, but two export customers, India and Azerbaijan, do. India recently began manufacturing LORA under license.

James F Dunnigan