QinetiQ Target Systems (QTS) was delighted to join the Royal Netherlands Army units in a bi-national Tactical Firing with Germany at the NATO Missile Firing Installation (NAMFI) on Crete, to support the Dutch training and system proving exercise. This exercise included NLD Army GBAD (Ground-Based Air Defence) and STINGER Systems in a combined operation with German GBAD systems at NAMFI in northern Crete. Delivering the Banshee Jet 40 and Whirlwind products, the Units were able to practise their air defence systems to excellent effect, with the Banshees representing a wide variety of threats.
QTS Director of Field Services, Rik Sellwood, said “This was a complex set of airborne target missions to put together and be delivered in a demanding technical and operational environment. 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”.
Exercise Director Major Alexander Mac Lennan of the Royal Netherlands Army said “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. Their skill and excellent services allowed us to complete our objectives.”
QinetiQ Target Systems (QTS) provide surface and airborne threat representation for military and other applications around the world for customers to operate themselves or as turnkey services. With a spread of targets we are able to replicate a wide variety of threats for training as well as Test and Evaluation purposes. Increasingly advanced weapon systems pose significant new threats. Launching over the horizon and sea skimming between Mach 2–4, supersonic missiles typically give a ship’s crew less than one minute to react. Sophisticated guidance systems with dog-leg waypoint navigation and terminal weave manoeuvre also make modern missiles harder to acquire and track.
