QinetiQ Target Systems Canada deployed a fleet of Hammerhead uncrewed surface vehicle targets during a large multinational exercise in Thailand, designed to test how allied navies respond to fast attack craft and explosive drone boat threats, the firm stated.
The Hammerhead USV-T systems were used during Exercise Cobra Gold, one of the largest mission rehearsal exercises in the Indo-Pacific, held in late February and early March. Ten of the uncrewed targets were deployed across three separate scenarios intended to simulate realistic maritime threats.
In the first scenario, four Hammerhead targets replicated a beach assault force operating as Fast In-Shore Attack Craft. Two of the vehicles were fitted with payloads provided by the exercise customer. The targets were launched and recovered at sea by the QinetiQ Target Systems Canada Field Services team with assistance from the Royal Thai Navy, while operators controlled them remotely from shore.
The second and third scenarios involved all ten Hammerhead vehicles being launched and controlled from aboard a Royal Thai Navy vessel. According to the company, these drills simulated explosive-laden uncrewed surface vessels used to disrupt naval operations and commercial shipping.
During the exercise, the targets were employed to represent a range of threat profiles, from single hostile craft to coordinated swarm attacks. Participating forces from the Royal Thai Navy, United States Navy, US Army, Republic of Korea Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy engaged and neutralised the Hammerhead targets using both surface and aerial assets.
Ryan Peterson, Customer Account Manager at QinetiQ Target Systems Canada, said the system enables training against emerging maritime threats. “The Hammerhead is a unique capability allowing our partners to train against realistic threats that they are facing around the world today. Deploying to Exercise Cobra Gold, a multinational exercise, means we can deliver frontline expertise and shape training standards at a time when the threat landscape continues to evolve at pace.”
Well I guess we can contact the Royal Thai Navy as to how best use the new drone boats we have just belatedly ordered, hopefully QinetiQ can ring their office in Canada to get a heads up too. No hurry lads and lasses, it’s not like Trump is threatening to abandon Europe is it unless we get entangled in Epstein Fury shenanigans. Talk about a rock and a hard place.