A target vehicle able to replicate threats travelling at more than five times the speed of sound is being built under Project Bowline, with a live flight demonstration planned at the MOD Hebrides Range in 2027, according to an answer given in Parliament.
Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative member for Huntingdon, asked the Secretary of State to set out the full requirements of the hypersonic target to be delivered under the project.
Luke Pollard, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, said: “Project Bowline is delivering a hypersonic target capability to support the development, evaluation and testing of missile defence systems against advanced threats. The programme will design, manufacture, qualify and test a target vehicle capable of replicating emerging high-speed threats travelling at speeds in excess of Mach 5.
“The capability will provide a realistic test environment for missile defence research, development and experimentation, supporting the United Kingdom’s contribution to allied air and missile defence. A live flight demonstration of the capability is planned at the MOD Hebrides Range in 2027.
“Details of the full technical requirements are commercially and operationally sensitive and therefore will not be released.”
Testing an interceptor against a realistic hypersonic threat requires something to shoot at, and few countries have one. A target that flies above Mach 5 lets designers prove tracking, discrimination and engagement against the kind of manoeuvring, high-speed object that current air defence radars and effectors were not built to handle.
The choice of the Hebrides range is of course coupled with an announcement made this week, when Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard signed an agreement with QinetiQ at the site covering the first design stage of a multimillion-pound investment to develop it for the testing of hypersonic missiles and other advanced technologies. That work was announced as part of Project Safari, the joint Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ programme opening test and evaluation facilities to smaller companies.
Israel’s ABM targets were later developed into useful weapons as they were the right size and weight for actual warheads. I wonder if this target will be like the Arrow series or closer to a sounding rocket type design?
Thanks, I was wondering the same thing as to whether there was any potential crossover here. I guess if you creating a hypersonic propulsion system and associated technology it must have some potential for other uses.
The big question is of course what defensive systems the target system will be testing, as even PAAMS doesn’t really fit the bill at the moment.
Nothing can really do it. Maybe if we developed an aster 45 as an equivalent to SM-3 or something like that but until then even the Aster 30 B1 NT is still fairly incapable against the highest tier of offensive missiles.
It’s a hint that a more capable system is at least on the cards for the future.
It all depends on the altitude you are trying to intercept the target. The T45 will be able to find and track such a threat. But it won’t be capable of intercepting such a target if it passes overhead at say 85,000ft or more. The published maximum engagement altitude of Aster 30 Block 1NT is 25km (80,000ft). Hypersonic glide vehicles and hypersonic cruise missiles generally fly well above 100,000ft, as there’s significantly less air and therefore less thermal heating on the airframe. However, at some point they will go in to their terminal modes and aim for the ground/surface, be that a static or in the case of a warship a moving target. Which is what I believe this target vehicle is designed for. As soon as the object gets near to the interceptor’s maximum engageable height, it can fired to try to intercept it as it falls into the engagement window.
As far as I’m aware PAAMS has taken out a number of silver arrow target missiles that represent short range ballistic missiles, that fall in a fairly predictable ballistic path. Along with the Houthis anti-ship ballistic missile in 2024. But it has yet to face in a physical test, a hypersonic cruise missile type threat, that can do some manoeuvring in its terminal phase to further complicate the interception. According to MOD blurb, Project Bowline was awarded to Lockheed Martin UK to “develop a hypersonic ‘clay pigeon’ target, a vehicle intended to represent threats capable of travelling at five times the speed of sound, under a new £20m investment. Designed to act as an advanced ‘clay pigeon’ for next-generation air defence systems, including sensors and interceptors, to shoot down as they’re developed.”
Having such a target missile would especially help further develop PAAMS and Aster. Additionally, this target could be just a sovereign based ballistic target alternative to Silver Arrow, that can be ground launched instead of air launched. However, the MOD’s blurb, doesn’t give any information on what type of target missile it is, other it must be capable of flying at Mach 5 or faster.
Thing is you don’t need the range on the targets and you want them to be as cheap as possible so they are usable!
Yes, a lot of high speed targets are cobbled together using bits of other missiles’ boosters. But if you have to achieve the speeds and altitudes for an entire hypersonic engagement rather than just close range sea skimmers the requirements build up.
Israel clearly cared enough that the only real difference between the Arrow series and the missiles they represent is that they are air-launched.
It may be possible to test both the hypersonic missile and the counter-hypersonics system at the same time!