Arquimea unveiled the QLM-40 loitering munition at FEINDEF 2021. (Arquimea)
Arquimea unveiled the QLM-40 loitering munition at the International Defence and Security Fair (FEINDEF) held in Madrid on 3–5 November.
The 40L70 pre-fragmented munition with folding wings is launched from a tube that can be installed on a vehicle. It is flown into a target but can be aborted and self-destruct.
Work on the QLM-40 has been under way for nearly three years but Arquimea general manager Manuel Martin acknowledged that the company had kept it very “low key”.
He told Janes on 4 November that the munition is designed to “locate, track and strike static and moving targets.” The 0.72 m long munition has a 1.4 m wingspan, a maximum take-off weight of 4.2 kg, a mission radius of up to 6 km, and a flight ceiling of 1,000 m.
“The QLM-40 has a flight time of 12 minutes carrying a 1 kg warhead. That makes it an effective lethal solution with high accuracy and surprise against tactical targets”, Martin said. The flight time includes the take-off, loitering, and attack phases.
The QLM-40 is equipped with an electro-optical camera with the option of an infrared one. With a wide range of automated or piloted flight modes to guide it to a target, “the pilot is always provided with real-time video through the ground control station, enabling him to engage beyond-line-of-sight targets and easily establish and modify flight plans”, Martin explained.
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