I did target towing using the TT18 on 7 Sqn at St Mawgan. We only did ground to air, so I have no experience of air to air.
We flew with a sleeve which we deployed from a canister in the air and towed against HMS Cambridge at Plymouth for Naval Gunfire training. I seem to remember the tow length was 6000ft. We had two canisters on each winch so in theory if the sleeve was damaged we could jettison and deploy another. The sleeve could not be recovered so we normally dropped it on the airfiled next to the runway for re-use. We occasionally towed for small arms anti-aircraft training on the ranges in South Wales. I did a Sunday for the TA and after 20,000 rounds of a variety of weapons we dropped the sleeve on the beach for them, it was undamaged!
We also towed the Rushton target in the Hebrides ranges for Blowpipe and Rapier Missiles, for blowpipe the tow was 3 miles and for Rapier it was 5 miles. At missile launch we were behind the launcher in a turn so there was no danger. The skill was in keeping the target level because as we turned it tended to drop, so the turn was always a climbing profile to maintain the target at 500 ft.
Last edited by options770; 20th Mar 2012 at 19:32.
Reason: Typing error