The Introduction of the Mirach 100/5 Target to the Royal Navy

摘要

Today's weapon systems qualification and training cannot rely on medium performance target drones, but require effective threat representative systems in terms of performance, signatures and flight dynamics, possibly endowed with formation flight capabilities. The Royal Navy Replacement Aerial Subsonic Target (RAST) program expressed these requirements and culminated in the selection of the Mirach 100/5 Target System, which had been freshly qualified by the Italian MoD for Tri-Service roles, as the interim solution before the evaluation of year 2000-plus threat scenarios and therefore future targets requirements. Among the Mirach 100/5 best value features, focus is given to the ability of the target to realistically represent anti-ship sea skimming missiles by mounting active seeker heads and passive IR sources while approaching the training ship at 5 meters above the surface in a so-called corkscrew manoeuvre. The paper will also expound the Royal navy view of the future uses for tactical DAV systems.