Hebrides Range

The Hebrides Range opened in 1957, and was established and operated by the Army, providing a home for hundreds of military personnel and acting as an employer for local civilians.

The control centre is located at Benbecula Airport, with the missile testing range situated close by at the north of South Uist. A radar tracking station on St Kilda is manned by a permanent team of 12 people.

In 1994, the large military presence on the site was reduced. The operation of the range was handed over to wholly civilian operation through DEERA, the MOD’s Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, which was subsequently privatised to become QinetiQ.

Qintetiq operate a number of MoD test firing sites across the UK under contract with the MOD.  The Hebrides range currently provides a location for Rapier firings and it also provides trials facilities for a wide variety of ground, long range air and sea launched munitions, UAV testing and air-to-air missile practice.