Northrop Grumman, SAN DIEGO: Northrop Grumman Corporation reached another milestone for its BQM-34 Firebee aerial target with the latest version's successful first flight featuring an enhanced integrated avionics unit as the vehicle's autopilot. Aerial targets are the U.S. Navy's most realistic means of training sailors and airmen against airborne threats and testing an array of weapon systems, and the avionics upgrade supports the service's aerial-targets transformation plan.
The BQM-34 Firebee's primary mission is to simulate tactical threats by enemy aircraft and missiles for defense readiness training, air-to-air combat training and test and evaluation of weapon systems. The BQM-34 Firebee is also in service with the U.S. Air Force and international military services. In addition to serving as an aerial target, the Firebee can also support a variety of operational scenarios including unique payload delivery missions. Most notably, it supported allied operational requirements during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The aerial-targets transformation plan includes implementing autonomous waypoint navigation, complex, pre-programmed three-dimensional maneuvers, and plug-and-play common digital architecture for payloads. Northrop Grumman developed this common-technology approach in collaboration with the Navy's targets program office to help simplify logistics requirements, alleviate obsolescence problems and reduce the operational costs of its fleet of subsonic targets.
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