DefenseNews: On 6 November 2025, at the Danish Army’s Oksbøl training range, the Spike LR2 was fired from an Eagle V protected wheeled vehicle using a fully stabilized remote weapon station, achieving direct hits on designated targets and demonstrating not just technical integration but real battlefield potential.
Have global ground forces just crossed a threshold in anti-armor warfare that could upend battlefield lethality? When Denmark recently achieved its first integrated live firing of the Spike LR2 anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) from the Eagle V armored patrol vehicle, it did more than validate a weapons integration effort it underscored the accelerating evolution of anti-tank missile technology that is reshaping land combat doctrine worldwide and forcing militaries from New Delhi to Washington to rethink legacy armored platforms and strike capabilities.
This milestone officially announced by Denmark in early January 2026 is not an isolated hardware test. Rather, it reflects a global tectonic shift in anti-armor and long-range precision weaponry that has profound implications for defense strategy, armored warfare doctrines, and the future shape of mechanized forces across continents.
To understand why this matters so urgently to defense planners, armies and national security strategists worldwide must look beyond the mere firing of a missile. It’s about precision, reach, lethality, and doctrinal transformation, the very elements that define 21st-century land dominance and deterrence.
For decades, anti-tank guided missiles have been a central pillar of ground force lethality, ever since the introduction of early wire-guided systems that could destroy tanks at standoff distances beyond the reach of conventional gun barrels. Yet, systems like the venerable TOW or early variants such as Javelin represented incremental rather than revolutionary change. The Spike family and especially its fifth-generation Spike LR2 variant now represents a significant leap in capability.
The Spike LR2 packs an advanced electro-optical seeker combining high-resolution day and uncooled infrared sensors, enabling precision even under adverse weather or battlefield obscurants. It uses a fiber-optic data link that ensures continuous communication between operator and missile, allowing the shooter to adjust aim points or redirect the missile mid-flight a capability that separates it from true fire-and-forget systems and introduces a fire-observe-update tactical flexibility unseen in most legacy ATGMs.
What’s more, the LR2 pushes engagement ranges to up to 5.5 kilometers from ground platforms roughly 30–40% more than earlier models and even up to 10 kilometers when air-launched from rotary platforms, bringing aerial strike options into the same missile family and logistical pipeline.
But range and precision are only part of the story. The missile warhead options from tandem HEAT charges that can defeat modern reactive armor to multipurpose blast-fragmentation effects give forces the ability to engage a spectrum of targets from main battle tanks to fortified positions and light vehicle columns. The combination of precision guidance, adaptable warheads, and flexible engagement modes makes the Spike LR2 an exceptionally versatile ground warfare weapon.
The Danish firing test specifically mounted the Spike LR2 onto a Kongsberg Protector RS4 remote weapon station fitted on the Eagle V armored patrol vehicle a 4x4 protected wheeled platform produced by GDELS-Mowag and validated not only weapon performance but the integration architecture, enabling real-time targeting, stabilization and fire control while on the move.
The Protector RS4 system already adopted by several NATO militaries brings stabilization, thermal and laser range-finding, geo-referenced targeting and digital fire control together, meaning the vehicle can detect, track, and engage threats with precision even while maneuvering over rough terrain. This capability is not just an upgrade for Denmark’s mechanized forces; it is emblematic of a global trend in military modernization where networked, precision-guided anti-armor systems become central to distributed ground force lethality.
This isn’t the only instance of this trend. Other NATO members, including Germany and Lithuania, are also fielding or integrating Spike LR2 into armored and mechanized platforms as part of broader anti-tank and mechanized force modernization programs. Germany, for example, has ordered significant quantities of Spike LR2 missiles to rebuild stockpiles, integrating them into Puma infantry fighting vehicles and other mounts to create layered engagement options from short distances to over 5 kilometers.
Lithuania, meanwhile, has successfully live-fired the same missile from its Vilkas IFV based on the modular Boxer platform, highlighting how even smaller nations are using precision ATGMs to enhance deterrence and defensive depth on contested frontiers.
This broad adoption underscores a shared understanding among Western and allied militaries: future land combat will see lethality at range become the norm, not the exception, forcing adversaries to rethink armored penetration strategies and survivability models.
From a global strategic vantage point, the live firing of Spike LR2 is more than a technical achievement. It signals a doctrinal shift. Precision guided munitions, once the domain of air power and large naval guns, are now integral to land combat even at brigade and battalion levels. The emergence of 5th-generation ATGMs reflects the confluence of digital targeting, crew networking, sensor fusion, and modular weapons architecture.
This has deep implications for regional security dynamics. In conflict theatres from Eastern Europe to the Indo-Pacific, combatants with long-range, precision anti-armor missiles can hold adversary armored columns at standoff distances, channel movement corridors, and enforce denial zones without traditional heavy armor dominance. Smaller mechanized units equipped with Spike-class systems can disrupt armored thrusts, protect flanks, and create layered defense networks that amplify force lethality.
For India a nation situated amidst complex regional security challenges and pursuing military modernization across the Indian Army’s armored and mechanized formations developments like Denmark’s firing test are more than mere headlines. They are reminders that anti-armor lethality and standoff precision are core capabilities in modern land battles, a reality that sits alongside Indo-Pacific maritime strategy and air dominance concerns. While India’s own defense industrial ecosystem pushes forward with Make in India defence projects, including ATGMs and integrated sensor platforms, the global pivot toward advanced systems like Spike LR2 highlights the scale of technological competition.
Technically, integrating such missiles onto wheeled platforms rather than exclusively tracked IFVs or dedicated launcher vehicles speaks to evolving battlefield mobility priorities. Wheeled armored vehicles such as Eagle V offer strategic road mobility, lower operational costs, and rapid deployment capabilities suited to hybrid conflict theatres where conventional frontlines are fluid. When these vehicles carry weapons with extended reach and intelligent guidance, they become force multipliers that blend reconnaissance, firepower, and networked battlefield awareness.
Even more compelling is the fire-observe-update capability inherent in Spike LR2’s fiber-optic link effectively enabling manual guidance, mid-course target updates, and dynamic engagement choices. In fluid battlefield environments where targets may move or collateral concerns dictate rapid retargeting, this aspect could redefine how infantry and mechanized units engage adversary armor.
What comes next for Denmark’s program and for militaries watching closely is further integration work, crew training and doctrinal refinement to maximize the system’s potential. Denmark has acknowledged that while the November firing was a major technical breakthrough, it is a step in a longer roadmap that includes training, more tests, and eventual fielding across its armored patrol vehicle fleet.
Globally, armies and defense industries will continue to monitor the outcomes and lessons learned from such tests. For defense manufacturers and strategic planners, the race is on to build systems that not only match but exceed the combination of range, precision, adaptability, and network integration exemplified by Spike LR2 and allied platforms. In an era increasingly defined by precision strike networks and digitized combat environments, these systems are not just weapons they are centres of operational gravity for future land battles.
In a world where armored columns once epitomized ground dominance, are precision guided missiles like Spike LR2 now the ultimate arbiters of battlefield success, capable of altering the calculus of armored warfare forever?
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