Draken has completed the first operational deployment of its Sting surface threat replication system as part of the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2.
The event marks the first time Sting has been used to support live-fly tactical training, representing a milestone in the provision of realistic scenarios for aircrew.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Sting, designed to simulate integrated air defence systems (IADS), was positioned at two RAF locations for the exercise.
Draken said the system generated a variety of simulated surface-to-air missile (SAM) threats to challenge UK and allied aircrews, supporting both operational training and multinational interoperability.
The capability worked in conjunction with Draken’s Phantom Sky, a range control and situational awareness platform responsible for coordinating training activity and managing threat systems in real time across the exercise battlespace.
Exercise Cobra Warrior is regarded as the RAF’s main tactical training event, and involves aircraft, personnel, and command-and-control units from Nato partners.
Draken’s role included the provision of a dynamic, responsive training environment tailored to developing Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) skills, a key aspect of contemporary air combat missions.
According to Draken, months of rapid development and integration preceded the deployment. During Cobra Warrior, multiple Sting threat emitters and surrogate systems were networked through Phantom Sky, enabling control and monitoring across different UK locations.
The exercise demonstrated the ability to support complex, multinational scenarios and highlighted the interoperability of the new capability.
Draken CEO Nic Anderson said: “The deployment of Sting for the first time represents a significant achievement for Draken and our customer. Working alongside Phantom Sky, Sting provides a realistic, adaptable and affordable way to replicate modern air defence threats in the live training environment.”
The deployment forms part of Draken’s wider Red Force training portfolio, which includes adversary-air, electronic-warfare, range-control and uncrewed-threat replication services.
The company said the combined use of Sting and Phantom Sky enables the simulated surface threats to be integrated with other exercise activity and assessed as it takes place.
In August, Draken formed a partnership with Cubic Defence to integrate Cubic’s SPEAR software and Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation into the Phantom Sky control system as part of efforts to further develop its Red Force training framework.
