Kratos achieves milestone for BQM-177A

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has completed the final development programme milestone for the BQM-177A Subsonic Aerial Target (SSAT) programme, the company announced on 29 November.

The programme aims to develop a new high fidelity target for the US Navy that replicates subsonic anti-cruise missile threats to support fleet training and weapon system testing and evaluation. 

The BQM-177A has been designed to initially augment, and eventually replace, the existing BQM-74E targets and deliver longer range, lower cruise altitudes and greater manoeuvrability.  

Based on Kratos' BQM-167X aircraft, the target is a derivative of the BQM-167A Skeeter target currently being supplied to the US Air Force. The BQM-177A has a new fuselage with area ruling, high mounted wings and an internally integrated MicroTurbo TR-60-5+ turbo jet engine for reduced transonic drag. It can support various mission requirements by carrying a variety of internal and wing tip mounted payloads, including electronic countermeasures, active and passive radar augmentation, infrared, identification of friend or foe, internal chaff and flare dispensing, threat emitter simulators, smoke and scoring.

Jerry Beaman, president of Kratos' Unmanned Systems Division, said: ‘The entire Unmanned Systems Division team is proud to have recently achieved the final development milestone on the US Navy SSAT programme that was required prior to the commencement of production, which we currently expect to begin early next year.’