Israel on Sunday for the first time released footage of its secret fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile, just hours after Syria claimed the weapon was used in alleged Israeli attack in the country.
The surface-to-surface Tamuz missile was developed by Israel's Rafael Defense Industries in the latter part of the 20th century and had never been revealed publicly.
The never-before-seen footage recorded by Rafael was shown in an event held by the IDF's artillery command.
Though the IDF is believed to keep the Tamuz missiles as a last resort solution due to their very high cost, according to Syrian reports on Saturday, Israel attacked a convoy carrying advanced Iranian weapons systems destined for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group using the weapon.
Experimental videos of the Tamuz missile since the 1980s
(Footage: Rafael)
The project of Tamuz missiles remained top secret even after electro-optical targeting systems were added to the IDF in 1991, and later was announced operational in the Artillery Corp's elite "Meitar" unit.
In the late 1990s, the missile was also installed on aircraft and naval ships, and its existence was only made public nine years ago after it was used against terror targets in Gaza Strip.
Six years ago, Tamuz missiles were given to the Air Force to be installed on Apache gunships, as an accurate 50 km (30 miles) long-range weapon. The missile has since been sold in various versions to 38 countries worldwide, including NATO forces.
The IDF event on Sunday, held at the Amphitheater in Caesarea, was to mark 50 years since the War of Attrition between the years 1967-1970 with footage of experiments carried out by Rafael in their Negev testing site.
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First experiments of the Tamuz missile conducted by Rafael in the Negev Desert in the latter part of the 20th century
(Photo: Rafael)
The video shows a missile carrier tank that opens up and launches the secret Tamuz missile.
These surface-to-surface missiles were launched against targets in Syria in the early 2000s during the Syrian civil war.
Tamuz and Gil missiles fired from the gunship
(Footage: IDF spokesman)
"The missile has a range of dozens of kilometers, is fully controlled by the operator and knows how to identify and distinguish between targets. It can also operate autonomously," Zvi Marmor, head of the Precision Tactical Weapons Systems Division of Rafael, said in the IDF event.
"The project was kept secret for years, even after we were able to double the firing range to 24 km (15 miles)."
Marmor said the weapons system was advanced technologically over the years, as other similar technologies were developed.