Hellfire hits mark

On target: A Hellfire missile emits a ribbon of flame after being fired from a Tiger during testing at Woomera.

Effects of a simulated APC target after it had been hit by a Hellfire missile with a tactical warhead. The photo shows where the missile entered. The frame at the front of the containers held solid steel plates. One of the plates can just be seen in the bottom left corner. Main photo by Sgt Mick Bott

By Cpl Andrew Hetherington

ANOTHER phase of Project AIR 87 has been successfully completed, with firings of six Hellfire missiles from the Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) at the Woomera instrumented range.

Maj Penelope Woolford, ARH project Explosive Ordnance manager, said the Hellfire missile tests late last year were just one component of the testing for the AIR 87 ARH project.

“The purpose of the firings is to test the clearance of the weapon for use on the Tiger and for the use of the weapon in Australia,” she said.

“A total of six missiles were fired in this phase of testing and there were two types of Hellfire missiles fired at two different targets.

“Fired were four AGM-114 M-1 blast fragmentation missiles with inert warheads and two missiles with live or tactical warheads.”

“Two targets were used, one to simulate an APC, which consisted of a series of shipping containers and they had steel plates of various thicknesses placed in front of them.

“The other target was a simulated building, which was also made up of shipping containers and had a concrete wall placed in front of it.”

The missiles were fired at distances of between 6-8km from the target during the day and night.

“Missiles were fired while the helicopter was both hovering and in forward flight,” Maj Woolford said.

She said in all instances the missiles penetrated their targets and had a 100 per cent hit rate.

“The two missiles which carried tactical warheads achieved damage effects that we expected, with buckling of the container walls and damage to the front panels,” she said.

The tests for the Hellfire missile are not yet complete, with further testing and integration to take place over the next six to 12 months.

“Although the tests were successful, there are still some minor outstanding areas that still need to be resolved,” Maj Woolford said.

“The weapon is not yet fully certified for use and we still have things to work on with the integration aspects [of the weapon with the aircraft] which need to be sorted before we can gain clearance for the weapon to be used on the Tiger.”

She said the tests had been so successful other international Tiger users were considering trialling and using the American Hellfire missile.

“The Tiger being a French aircraft and that it has been adapted to fire an American missile, is an example of a very successful Commonwealth and industry cooperative testing,” she said.

“As a result of this successful testing the French and Spanish Tiger programs are now considering Hellfire as a weapon for their Tiger variants.”