Aberporth Training Swing-Role Missions

The RAF and UK defence company QinetiQ recently conducted the first live weaponry ‘swing-role’ mission on the range at MoD Aberporth. MS&T’s Dim Jones takes a more detailed look at this significant milestone.

As part of its Long-Term Partnering Arrangement (LTPA) with the UK MoD, QinetiQ has, since 2006, run the weapons ranges at Aberporth, in Cardigan Bay off the west coast of Wales, and Hebrides, off the northwest coast of Scotland. Aberporth is an oversea range of around 6500 km2 with the associated airspace up to FL660, and has been used by the UK MoD since 1939 for the evaluation of all forms of air- and sea-launched weapons systems and, latterly, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The LTPA also provides for the instrumentation and surveillance of the range, and the provision of surface and aerial targets.

The term ‘swing-role’ differs from ‘multi-role’, in that the latter denotes an aircraft (and, by inference, its aircrew) which is capable of performing more than one role. The former signifies that at least two roles are performed during the same sortie. Although these could include such disciplines as reconnaissance or electronic warfare, the generally accepted definition is air-to-air and air-to-surface. The missions in question were performed by Typhoon GR3, using MBDA ASRAAM short-range IR-guided air-to-air missiles, Raytheon Paveway IV (PWIV) dual-mode precision-guided bombs, and Mauser 27mm cannon. The RAF squadrons involved were No 29(F), the Typhoon Operational Conversion Unit (OCU), conducting Qualified Weapons Instructor (QWI) training, and No XI(F), a front-line squadron conducting pre-deployment operational training.

There is always a balance to be struck between Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) and Operational Training, the former being primarily aimed at the weapons system and the latter at the aircrew. The aim of the mission will determine the profile used, and data is collected by range instrumentation and telemetry on the weapon and target. As data on a weapons system is built up, and subject to budgetary considerations, the profiles can become more dynamic and complex, and this is the MoD’s preferred direction of future travel, the current balance being about 50/50. In either case, and notwithstanding that the profiles can be accurately replicated in modern simulators, there is great training value for the aircrew in simply delivering live weapons.

For the air-to-air phase of the missions, the target of choice was the Leonardo Mirach 100-5 drone, operated by QinetiQ under the Combined Aerial Target Service (CATS). The Mirach is a rail-launched recoverable high-subsonic air vehicle which can simulate a range of threats and their performances, from very low altitude (10ft) sea skimming, through tight formation flights to 3D manoeuvres at instantaneous 8G load factors and up to 40,000+ft. The drone itself presents a good radar return, but can deploy a towed ‘Luneburg Lens’ for enhanced observability, and an X-Band radar active amplifier. It has a wing-mounted diesel-powered IR source for use with telemetry (inert) missiles, and a towed IR flare for HE rounds. It can deploy chaff and IR decoy flares, and has a radar threat simulator. Scoring is achieved through a Radar Miss Distance Indicator (MDI). The QWI course profiles used multiple aerial targets.

For the air-to-surface element, the Typhoons released PWIV in both modes: INS/GPS; and laser-guided, self-designating with the Rafael AN/AAQ-28 Litening 3 pod. The main surface targets at Aberporth are 60-ft moored barges. However, such is the accuracy of modern weapons that multiple direct hits (DH) would render the barges unserviceable very quickly and, although the Litening pod could be adjusted to generate a miss distance, this is negative training. Accordingly, an array of moored five-metre platforms are deployed, requiring the attacking aircraft to identify the correct target, with the ‘mother barge’, equipped with multiple cameras and filters, acting as the instrumentation platform. The five-metre platforms have individual live GPS feed for use with the PWIV INS/GPS mode, and regularly suffer DHs. At the bottom end of the food chain is a low-cost expendable target (essentially a wooden box), which was developed for the XI(F) Squadron exercise, which can be either static or towed by a remotely controlled vessel, and can also be used for strafe, with video again provided by the mother-barge.

Lastly, Aberporth have determined that an extremely low-cost source (essentially a domestic cooker plate) provides a suitable target for an IR missile, and that firing an air-to-air weapon against a surface target can provide valuable and inexpensive training in weapon release. This is not as crazy as it sounds; I recall that, in the F4 in the 1970s, we used a technique developed in Vietnam for employing the AIM-7 Sparrow, guided by the Pulse-Doppler radar, against fast patrol boats (FPB). The utility of this may be questionable, but the profiles were regularly practised against unsuspecting North Sea ferries, and were a lot of fun to fly. There is also little doubt that the arrival of a supersonic telegraph pole in their mess-deck would have ruined an FPB crew’s entire day.

The UK MoD is by no means Aberporth’s only customer, and the range is used by other air forces (e.g. USAFE), by combat ships of many nations, and by the defence industry.

Cardigan Bay is home to a variety of marine life, both permanently resident and transient, including cetaceans such as whales, porpoises, dolphins and orca, and other mammals such as seals. Great care is taken to avoid harming these creatures, including acoustic surveillance and range clearance – sometimes carried out by the user aircraft themselves – and post-exercise sea sampling. Wildlife welfare also influences the munitions and profiles used: PWIV is cleared for High Explosive, but is used in the airburst mode; and strafe is performed using armour-piercing ammunition.

The assistance of Ian Ramsbottom, QinetiQ’s Trials Operation Manager at Aberporth, and a representative of the RAF’s Air and Space Warfare Centre were essential to this article.