MBDA March 21 said it recently successfully demonstrated its Dual Mode Brimstone (DMB) missile on an MQ-9 Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), scoring nine direct hits against a range of targets including very high speed and maneuvering vehicles.
Dual Mode Brimstone is a combat-proven weapon for engaging moving and maneuvering targets, and targets in high collateral risk/urban environments, the company said in a statement.
Brimstone can now provide Reaper crews with a weapon that reduces collateral damage risk and demonstrates first pass, single shot lethality against high speed maneuvering targets on land and at sea and in complex environments.
Conducted in December 2013 and January 2014 at the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., the trials were done for the U.K. Ministry of Defense by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Air Warfare Center Unmanned Air Systems Test and Evaluation Squadron, Defense Equipment & Support Weapons Operating Center.
Additionally, the U.S. Air Force’s BIG SAFARI Organization, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
Inc.–which produces Reaper–and MBDA participated in the trials for the U.K. MoD.
All of the RAF’s primary and secondary trials objectives were met: demonstrating the integration functionality implemented, safe carriage, safe release, system targeting and end game performance while gathering data to support optimization and clearance activities, the statement said.
The trials began with captive carry of avionics and environmental data gathering missiles, proving the successful integration of the two systems and gathering additional evidence to support future clearance activities. These were followed by a series of live operational missile and inert telemetry missile firings.
The firings were taken from realistic middle-of-the-envelope profiles; typically 20,000 foot release altitude and 7km-12 km plan range, with the platform being remotely piloted in operationally representative beyond-line-of-sight (SATCOM) conditions, with tracking and designation of targets being conducted in a mixture of manual-track and auto-track modes.
Brimstone scored nine direct hits in a range of very challenging scenarios including static, accelerating, weaving, fast and very fast remotely controlled targets. Two of the more challenging scenarios were against trucks traveling at 70 mph in a crossing target scenario.
At times, the targets were manually tracked by the Reaper crews, showing how the integrated semi-active laser and active millimeter wave radar seeker works in tandem to ensure direct hits, even while tracking and designating targets manually over SATCOM.
Every operational and telemetry missile performed as designed.
This very successful trials program demonstrates Brimstone’s dual mode seeker and robust guidance capability is uniquely placed to enable beyond-line-of-sight RPA to deliver the same low collateral damage effects with the same precision as that demonstrated already by the RAF with Brimstone on Tornado GR4 fast jets on operations in Afghanistan and Libya.
These trials are another step in the ongoing spiral development of the weapon system, broadening its application to deliver a true multi-role and multi-platform land/maritime attack capability.