AQM-127 SLAT

Lore & Background

Development of the YAQM-127 began in 1983 after the cancellation of the BQM-111 Firebrand, as the Navy still needed a replacement for the MQM-8 Vandal. A specification was issued for a recoverable, parachute-retrieved target drone capable of air launch from various aircraft. Martin Marietta, Ling-Temco-Vought, and Teledyne Ryan submitted bids; Martin Marietta won the design competition in September 1984. The design was derived from the cancelled Advanced Strategic Air-Launched Missile (ASALM) developed for the United States Air Force. The SLAT used a Marquardt hybrid rocket-ramjet: a solid rocket booster provided initial thrust, and after burnout the rocket chamber became the combustion chamber for a ramjet sustainer. It was designed to fly at Mach 2.5 at an altitude of 30 ft, following a pre-programmed autopilot course, and was to be fitted with radar signature augmentors and a radar seeker emulator. Initial operational capability was projected for 1991.

Reader's Guide

The AQM-127 SLAT program is notable as a failed attempt to field a high-speed, low-altitude target drone for the United States Navy. Of the fifteen YAQM-127A pre-production test missiles built, only six test flights were conducted between November 1987 and January 1989, with just one success. After a twenty-two month stand-down to reassess and modify the design, flight testing resumed in November 1990 but ended in failure; a final test in May 1991 also failed. With consistent failures and rising costs, the United States Congress intervened, and the program was cancelled in the summer of 1991. The Navy, still needing a high-speed target drone to replace the Vandal, turned to an interim solution: a drone conversion of a Russian missile, the MA-31, which entered service in small numbers during 1999. The SLAT's legacy is that of a technically ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful project that highlighted the challenges of developing a recoverable supersonic target system.

Did You Know?

• The AQM-127 was derived from Martin Marietta's work on the cancelled ASALM missile.
• Only one of the six initial test flights was a success.
• The program was cancelled in 1991 after eight test flights, seven of which failed.
• The Navy later used a drone conversion of the Russian MA-31 missile as an interim target drone.