Ram-air inflatable, fabric, towed gunnery target

Abstract

A ram-air inflatable, fabric, towed gunnery target for air, land, and naval defense practice having a rigid enclosed nose cone and a flexible inflatable envelope with aft inflation inlets and finlet stabilizers is presented. The gunnery target is foldable for storage and deployment, said envelope folded into a rigid extraction module canister and said nose cone serving as the nose cone for said module. The target may be air launched or ground-snatch deployed, said module being air deployed from a pod launcher on the tractor aircraft. The target may be towed for gunnery sorties at speeds and distances exceeding current tow target performance limits. The nose cone contains housing for sensitive detection devices to record hits or near-misses of said target simulated to be hits on an actual aircraft. The target is capable of withstanding multiple bullet perforations and may be recovered from land, sea, or air and refurbished and reused.