Saab’s UK subsidiary BlueBear supported a British Army air defence exercise in the Falkland Islands, designed to test reaction times and command systems in a demanding operational environment.
The exercise, known as Ex KOP SHIELD, was conducted by the Army’s 7th Air Defence Group and involved collaboration with the Royal Air Force and British Forces South Atlantic Islands.
Over two days and five sorties, operators from the 7th Air Defence Group’s Counter-Uncrewed Aerial System Training Team worked with the resident Sky Sabre battery, using BlueBear’s target drone system to simulate incoming aerial threats. The Sky Sabre system, which incorporates Saab’s Giraffe AMB radar, trained alongside RAF Typhoon jets based on the islands to improve joint coordination and response.
BlueBear provided both equipment and technical support, helping the Army team to extend the range of the target system across more than 500 kilometres over the South Atlantic, nearly doubling its typical operational range.
Andy Fraser, Group Managing Director at Saab UK, said “Ex KOP SHIELD was a remarkable demonstration of the capabilities of BlueBear’s target system and the expertise of our support team. Working alongside the British Army’s 7th Air Defence Group, we were able to simulate real-world scenarios to provide accurate training.”
Flight Lieutenant Dan Anderson of the 7th Air Defence Group said the exercise “showcased the capabilities of Sky Sabre, CTT and the professionalism of our personnel.” He added that BlueBear’s system and technical expertise allowed troops to extend their training distances and gather important insights into system performance.
BlueBear’s target systems have now been tested successfully in the Arctic, Europe, the Middle East and the South Atlantic.
Ahhh, Robinson Heath.
There needs to be something comparable for Cyprus. There’s a far great air threat there, and whilst there are Typhoons, Sky Sabre would also be useful.
This is one of the the very interesting things about the Falklands and Akrotiri, Akrotiri is within ballistic missile range of a hostile none state actor with short/medium range ballistic missiles..and possibly drones but no other air breathing threat… it’s also not at risk any other way and is easy to reenforced and protect via other methods.
The Falklands on the other hand has a more significant air earthing threat ( manned fighters) and can only be re-enforce via the runway at the end of a long airbridge.. essentially that makes the runway utterly vital to protect from air breathing threat’s as you could never take/threaten the Falklands while mount pleasant is operational..
Indeed Jonathan-via Ascension and then a looong haul to MPA! Maybe a break for tea at St Helena but the runway is only 1,9 km long-ok for the likes of a C130 but not sure about the bigger transports-also wouldn’t do for Typhoons landing, although they could take off easily with afterburners but then would use so much fuel in doing that they might need a couple of in flight top ups!! Its complicated 🙂