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Banshee Whirlwind

The Banshee Whirlwind™ is one of a range of remotely piloted aerial targets offered by QinetiQ's Target Systems business. The system has achieved worldwide acclaim and is in service, or has been operated under contract, in over 30 countries.

Banshee Whirlwind

The Banshee family of Aerial Targets are typically used by customers to represent threats posed by UAV’s, enemy aircraft and general aerial threat weapons. Variants of Banshee have been used by customers to test the effectiveness and operational readiness of weapon systems including:

  • Air-to-Air Missiles
  • Ground/MANPAD/Surface-to-Air Missiles
  • Guns/Cannon Systems

Throughout its development, the Banshee system has been enhanced to include customer modifications that improve the maintainability, reliability and operability. These modifications and refined aerodynamics have contributed to the increased performance available in the current version.

The Banshee Whirlwind is powered by a rear-mounted engine. It is fitted with our own digital autopilot, telemetry, GPS and waypoint navigation systems to provide accurate and reliable flight profiles t to ranges of over 100km. Up to four vehicles may be operated simultaneously from one ground control station when Banshee is flying in autonomous mode. This allows an entire mission, including launch and recovery, to be performed automatically. Flight to altitudes of over 7,000m metres can be achieved with Banshee, whilst the addition of a radar altimeter allows the target to achieve reliable controlled flight to altitudes as low as five metres.

Key Features

  • Suitable for use on land and sea
  • Suitable for use against surface-to-air and air-to-air weapon systems
  • Target performance and enhancement easily varied with weapon proven plug-in modules
  • Target airframe and enhancements proven worldwide with thousands of hours of in-service operation