Seaborne targets are vessels or floating structures that are shot at for practice by naval or air forces. They may be remotely controlled and mobile, or towed behind other craft, or just set adrift in the sea.

Target ships

Target ships are vessels, typically obsolete or captured warships, used for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing – perhaps most spectacularly in

Operation Crossroads Operation Crossroads was a pair of nuclear weapon tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll in mid-1946. They were the first nuclear weapon tests since Trinity on July 16, 1945, and the first detonations of nuclear devices sinc ...

(1946), where 95 ships were sunk in a U.S. nuclear weapons test at

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese language, Marshallese: , , ), known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. The atoll is at the no ...

Powered targets

In the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

, a Seaborne Powered Target (SEPTAR) is an

unmanned surface vehicle An unmanned surface vehicle, unmanned surface vessel or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), colloquially called a drone boat, drone ship or sea drone, is a boat or ship that operates on the surface of the water without a crew. USVs operate with v ...

used as the naval counterpart of a

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operation ...

. They are remote-controlled, and all but the smallest can be equipped with electromagnetic emitters to appear as a larger ship on sensors. As of 2013, U.S. Navy SEPTARs include: * Hammerhead usv-t: A high-speed drone capable of multiple vessel attacks. *Mobile Ship Target (MST): A ship-sized target some long, with a top speed of . *QST-35: A fiberglass boat with a top speed of , usable manned or unmanned, or as a mine countermeasure. *Fast-Attack Craft Target (FACT): A smaller, more agile fiberglass boat with a top speed of , intended to challenge gunners. *High-Speed Maneuvering Surface Target (HSMST): A boat similar to a harbor patrol boat, designed for operations in shallow waters, with a top speed of . *Ship-Deployable Surface Target (SDST): A small craft similar to a

water scooter A personal watercraft (PWC), also called Jet Ski or water scooter, is a primarily recreational watercraft that is designed to hold only a small number of occupants, who sit or stand on top of the craft, not within the craft as in a boat. P ...

, which can also be used as one, with a top speed of .

Turkish Navy The Turkish Naval Forces (), or Turkish Navy (), is the naval warfare service branch of the TAF. The modern naval traditions and customs of the Turkish Navy can be traced back to 10 July 1920, when it was established as the ''Directorate o ...

variants, * Aselsan ALBATROS-T High-Speed Unmanned Surface Target Boat * Aselsan ALBATROS-K High-Speed Unmanned Surface Target Boat

Towed targets

Targets can also be towed behind other craft, the counterparts of

target tug A target tug is an aircraft which tows an unmanned drone, a fabric drogue or other kind of target, for the purposes of gun or missile target practice. Target tugs are often conversions of transport and utility aircraft, as well as obsolescent c ...

s in aviation. The U.S. Navy employs the Low-Cost Modular Target (LCMT), a modular barge made from pontoons, scaffolding and large colored sails as visual targets, which can be shot at with guns or a variety of missiles. It is usually towed by a HSMST.

Free-floating targets

Navies have used all sort of equipment thrown overboard for gunnery practice, such as empty barrels. Modern free-floating targets are large, inflatable and bright orange; hence the nickname " killer tomato".

References

{{commons category, Seaborne targets Naval education and training Targeting (warfare)