Dual Mode Brimstone Completes Trial Onboard MQ-9 Reaper

MBDA has successfully completed trials of its Dual Mode Brimstone air to ground missile from MQ-9 Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), s...

MBDA has successfully completed trials of its Dual Mode Brimstone air to ground missile from MQ-9 Reaper Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), scoring nine direct hits against a range of targets including very high speed and manoeuvring vehicles.

The trials were conducted in December 2013 and January 2014 at US Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, on behalf of the UK Ministry of Defence by the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Air Warfare Centre Unmanned Air Systems Test and Evaluation Squadron, Defence Equipment & Support Weapons Operating Centre, United States Air Force’s BIG SAFARI Organisation, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Incorporated and MBDA.

Brimstone scored nine direct hits against static, accelerating, weaving, fast and very fast remotely controlled targets. Two of the more challenging scenarios were against trucks travelling at 70mph in a crossing target scenario.

The targets were manually tracked by the Reaper pilots, with the help of integrated Semi-Active Laser and Active Milli Metric Wave(MMW) radar seeker working in tandem to ensure direct hits.

The trial met RAF’s primary and secondary goals, demonstrating the integration functionality implemented, safe carriage, safe release, system targeting and end game performance whilst gathering data to support optimisation and clearance activities.
The trials began with captive flight of Avionics and Environmental Data Gathering Missiles, 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 20,000ft release altitude and 7km - 12km 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.

RAF had employed Brimstone on its Tornado GR4 jets during operations in Afghanistan and Libya.