Netherlands, Germany Conduct NATO Bilateral Firing Exercise With QinetiQ Airborne Targets
QinetiQ Target Systems (QTS) has partnered with the NATO Missile Firing Installation in a bilateral tactical firing training exercise by the Royal Netherlands Army and German forces in northern Crete.
The drills involved firing various air defense systems, such as the QinetiQ Banshee Jet 40 and Whirlwind aerial target, against airborne threats.
The forces operated their Ground-Based Air Defence systems, while the Dutch army provided its guided surface-to-air anti-aircraft Stinger missile in the exercise.
“This was a complex set of airborne target missions to put together and be delivered in a demanding technical and operational environment,” QTS Director of Field Services Rik Sellwood said.
“The team is really pleased with the services that it delivered and we are proud to have played a part in this highly important exercise.”
QTS specializes in airborne and surface threat representation development for military and related applications, replicating a spectrum of modern threats for training, testing, and evaluation.
“The use of the QinetiQ team enabled us to train our combined bi-national air defence task force in a live environment with multiple targets simultaneously airborne, and provided realistic threats that really tested end-to-end processes including the actual launch of weapons,” Royal Netherlands Army Maj. Alexander Mac Lennan said.
QinetiQ Aerial Targets With Other Allies
In March, QinetiQ was awarded a contract to supply its Banshee aerial targets for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s anti-aircraft training.
Also this year, the UK Royal Navy signed a contract to trial the Banshee drone with training, intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance scenarios for its Vampire drone development.
