Qinetiq leads missile research

Qinetiq-led consortium Team Impaqt has secured a £5m contract for a 30 month long Output 6 research programme into 155mm guided munition (GM) technology. The programme focuses on reducing overall risk in two key GM technology areas: guidance navigation and control (GNC) architecture, and composite shell body structural integrity.

Team Impaqt is comprised of European defence research and manufacturing organisations Qinetiq, NEXTER, BAE Systems, Bofors AB and MBDA. Team Impaqt is currently conducting guided munition and related research programmes for the UK and French Ministries of Defence.

Building on knowledge gained within the team during previous risk reduction activities, the two work packages will commence with a design phase and go through to live firing demonstrations. The GNC architecture developed within the programme will be modelled using a six ‘degree of freedom’ model to predict the performance of two munitions, known as Impaqt Mk1 and Mk2.

Impaqt Mk1 consists of a metal shell body, containing various payloads, and the airframe is aerodynamically stabilised by a freely spinning tail fin assembly. The Impaqt Mk1 concept is proposed as the basis for the airframe in the French munition portée precision accrué (MPPA) demonstrator programme.

The Impaqt Mk2 concept claims to offer enhanced capability over existing munitions by using lighter, composite materials to reduce the overall mass to achieve greater accuracy, range and payload delivery.

The firing trials will test both the design of the on-board GNC sub-system, and its ability to withstand firing, and the structural integrity of the composite shell-body design.