Why a guided missile launcher fitted UTE is being tested in the Australian outback

A high-tech guided missile launcher attached to a ute is being tested in the Australian outback.

The rockets were launched from a field along the NSW-QLD border on Thursday by Queensland-based Black Sky Aerospace (BSA), but the prototypes are not equipped with active warheads.

Inspired by the sudden start of the war in the Ukraine and rising tensions near the Australian border, the BSA decided to create a defense system that could be installed on a ute.

“I saw what was happening in the Ukraine and asked the team ‘how long would it take to fire a missile from the back of a ute?'” James Baker, director general of Defense and National Security at the BSA Mail Australia, told the Daily Mail.

The prototype is four months in development and recent BSA calculations estimate that it could launch a rocket a distance of 15 kilometers.

Queensland company Black Sky Aerospace has fired rockets from the back of a ute (pictured) to test the device’s potential to protect Australia from an invading army.

The prototype is four months in the making, with recent BSA calculations estimating that the prototype could launch a rocket a distance of 15 kilometers.

It still has a long way to go before completion, as the BSA is juggling many other projects, including a missile guidance system, boosters and even trying to “re-enter Australia in the space race.”

“We still have to put a warhead on the rockets,” Baker said.

We could make our own, but that would take longer. It would be much quicker to partner with another company that already produces them.’

Taking inspiration from the Ukrainian war and rising international tensions, BSA decided to create the device that could be quickly installed and activated on the back of a ute and other rigs.

The BSA hopes that, once completed, the device could be used by the Australian Defense Force to defend the nation from the growing possibility of conflict.

“The Australian government is facing one of the most dire strategic circumstances since World War II. We heard that, we listened and we acted,” Baker said.

BSA plans to conduct larger-scale tests on the device in the first half of 2023.

Prototype has been in development for just four months, BSA claims they could “do it in six months” with funding