Breaking news
Boeing wins contract to provide USAF with 25 more QF-16 full-scale aerial target drones.
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World
Aviation Defense & Security Industry News - Boeing |
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| Boeing wins contract to provide USAF with 25 more QF-16 full-scale aerial target drones | |||
A few days after
the delivery of the first production QF-16 full-scale aerial target
to Tyndall Air Force Base, Boeing has been awarded a $28,460,408 contract
for purchase of 25 QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Targets (FSAT), announced
today the US Department of Defense.
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 Boeing QF-16 full-scale aerial target drone |
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This option is for
the purchase of 25 QF-16 FSATs and 25 four-year warranties of the QF-16
drone-peculiar equipment. Work will be performed at Cecil Field, Florida,
and is expected to be complete by Oct. 31, 2017. Boeing is converting retired F-16s into full-scale, remote-controlled manned and unmanned aerial targets that will replace the QF-4 fleet, which will be depleted from inventory by 2015. It is ultimately foreseen that a total of 210 airframes will be converted in the end with the program running until 2022 and airframes lasting until around 2025. These will consist of 30 block 15s, 103 block 25s and 77 block 30s. The QF-16 is a supersonic reusable full-scale aerial target drone modified from an F-16 Fighting Falcon. At this time, the group uses QF-4s, made from 1960s F-4 Phantom, to conduct their full-scale aerial target missions. The targets allow the Air Force and allied nations to have a realistic understanding of what they could face on the battlefield. |
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