40
Weapons testing
June 26 1935, a de Havilland
DH.82B Queen Bee lifts off
at Farnborough, UK in the
first demonstration of the
type’s remote-control system. Flown via
push buttons on a specially designed
panel, the aircraft maneuvers around the
airfield before returning to land on its
wheeled undercarriage.
Designed and built as a practice tool
for anti-aircraft gunners, the Queen Bee
paved the way for similar conversions of
existing, usually surplus military aircraft
and the post-war development of more
specialized ‘drones’ for military training
or trials. Capability, performance and
cost, bearing in mind success is most
often measured in the craft’s own
destruction, have always driven the
production of remotely controlled targets.
Latterly, as guidance systems moved from
air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles into
precise air-to-ground munitions, the
requirements of aircraft weapons trials
and for target drones changed.
Laser and electro-optically guided airto
ground weapons appeared
operationally during the 1960s and had
matured by the time of the 1991 Gulf War.
Subsequently, a new breed of weapon
emerged, capable of engaging
maneuvering surface targets moving at
speed. Proving such systems has brought
dedicated land and surface vehicles into
the aerospace testing remit.
GLOBAL REQUIREMENTS
In 2016, Meggitt Aerospace sold its Target
Systems business to QinetiQ in a £57.5
million (US$75 million) deal. QinetiQ
Target Systems (QTS) offers aerial, land
and surface (maritime) targets and has
continued to invest in new capabilities
and systems. It supplies its products off
the shelf or within a bespoke service for
individual trials.
Jules Werner, business development
manager, QinetiQ Target Systems, says,
“Customers come to us with a set of
requirements. We work to understand
exactly what they’re trying to achieve,
then our field services people pack
everything together. It’s like a Formula 1
team, with all the equipment and
control systems deployed in a
series of trucks.
“Typically, we deploy a five-
or eight-person team,
depending on the
requirements and number of
targets. We often send teams
and equipment to overseas
locations and currently operate in
more than 40 countries.
“At the end of the trial, we de-rig,
1 // The DC-130 was
modified to launch target
drones, in this case the
BQM-34S Firebee (Photo:
PHCS RL Lawson/US Navy)
2 // The QTS Hammerhead
USV-T may be operated in
swarms of up to 40 targets
load the equipment back in the trucks
and ship it back to our facilities. The
customer receives a set of results and has
the opportunity to witness whatever
aspect of the trial they need to see.”
Fundamentally, there is no difference
between flying a drone as a target for
weapons practice compared to flying for
training purposes, but Werner says QTS
always listens carefully to its customers’
requirements. “We might do a series of
tracking runs if that is what is needed.
Sometimes the trial calls for the target’s
destruction, sometimes it doesn’t, but we
always consider that a target has a
working lifetime, is built to a certain cost
and isn’t designed to be used for many
years,” he says.
1
2
“We often send teams and
equipment to overseas
locations and currently
operate in more than
40 countries”
(Photo: QTS)
SURFACE TARGETS
A variety of Unmanned Surface Vehicle-
Targets (USV-T) options is available for
engagement by naval, vehicle and other
military systems, and from the air. And
while it is perhaps more relevant to
military training exercises, QTS has the
ability to operate multiple surface targets
– as many as 40 simultaneously.
Surface targets may be engaged from
the air, providing a more serious
challenge for missiles that are designed
to track and destroy fast-moving vehicles.
Interestingly, the naval targets are also
offered for trials of weapons designed for
use against land targets. “We can
simulate a fast-moving land target at sea,
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