A LASTING RELATIONSHIP
A close partnership with the Swiss Air Force and the
Vidsel Test Range has resulted in testing excellence
// JONAS LINDE
The Test and Evaluation Division of the
Swedish Defence Materiel
Administration (FMV) is the operator
of several test, training and exercise ranges
in Sweden, featuring among others Vidsel
Test Range.
Being the largest overland test range in
Europe, Vidsel Test Range has been
operational since 1958. The range was
originally set up to enable advanced
weapon trials for different weapon systems
for the Swedish Armed Forces, for example
the J35 Draken interceptor. However, the
extraordinary size of Vidsel Test Range, in
combination with the number of different
capabilities of the range soon attracted
international interest.
Located in the very far north of Sweden,
Vidsel Test Range allows advanced test,
training and exercise activities with
aircraft, missiles, ground based air defence
systems (GBAD) as well as long-range
artillery to be performed. One of the key
activities is live firing with advanced
weapon systems such as METEOR and
AMRAAM. With a restricted airspace of
8,800 km2 there is plenty of space for
realistic test and training scenarios for
both fixed and rotary wing aircraft to be
performed. For air to ground
engagements the 3,300 km2
of restricted ground space
provides a variety of
different target areas and
different locations of
ground threats.
Furthermore, the range is
fully instrumented with
Flight Termination System
(FTS), Telemetry (TM),
surveillance and tracking
radars as well as optical
tracking with cine theodolites.
TESTING HERITAGE
One of the very first international
customers to Vidsel Test Range was the
Swiss Air Force, which performed its first
large missile campaign at the range as
early as 1977. At that time, the test
concerned Mirage 3s with Falcon and
Sidewinder missiles. Since then, the
cooperation has moved on to other aircraft
and missiles. The latest Swiss activity at
Vidsel Test Range includes both testing
and training.
For their rotary wing, the Swiss Air
Force has used Vidsel Test Range to train
146 SHOWCASE 2020 \\ AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM
1 // Firing of a Smokey-SAM gives the pilot a
visual cue similar to the launch of a ground
based missile system, for example a MANPAD
2 // Helicopters deploying flares over Point
November at Vidsel Test Range during the
2018 ISSYS combat readiness course.
2
1
firing & exercise ranges
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM