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Boeing Completes 1st Flight Of QF-16 Aerial Target For US Air Force By Shane Nolan |
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May 15, 2012 - Boeing and the U.S. Air Force (USAF)
completed the first manned flight of the QF-16 Full
Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) on May 4 at Cecil Field in
Jacksonville. The QF-16 took off at 3:05 p.m. Eastern
time and climbed to an altitude of 41,000 feet during
its 66-minute flight. The USAF will convert older jet aircraft, the F-16s into full-scale target drones under the QF-16 Air Superiority Target (AST) program. These AST drones are used in Weapon System Evaluation Programs (WSEP) for assessing upgrades or replacements for air-to-air missiles (AAM), and they are also useful for giving pilots the experience of a live AAM shot and kill prior to entering combat. |
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QF-16s would replace the current QF-4 drones, the last of
which are expected to be expended around 2015. The Air
Force?s Air Armament Center hosted its first ?Industry Day?
for interested vendors at Eglin AFB, Florida on 16?19 July
2007. The DoD awarded the nearly $70 million QF-16 Full
Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) contract to Boeing on March 8,
2010, with the first delivery scheduled for 2014.
On 22 April 2010, the first F-16 to be
converted to an aerial target arrived at Boeing's facility at
Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida. Six F-16s will be modified
during the development phase, as prototypes for engineering
tests and evaluation. From 2014, up to 126 QF-16 drones will be
created. "With this successful first flight of the
QF-16, the Air Force, Boeing and our supplier-partners have laid
the groundwork for the program to enter low-rate production in
2013 and make its first production delivery in 2014," said
Torbjorn Sjogren, Boeing vice president, Global Maintenance and
Upgrades.
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