New target drones for the USAF!!!!

[Pogmusic]

Just read where the USAF is converting old F-16s into QF-16s. Hope they keep a couple of the QF-4s going for heritage reasons... Here's the link http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i= ... =AME&s=AIR

[mlenoch]

A little F-4 News:
RF-4s will be arriving soon as drones. Both Tyndal & Holloman will receive these QRF-4s.
The 'target useage' rate of QF-4s is about 6 to 8 aircraft per year; their goal is to evade as targets to maximize the tracking 'challenge'.
VL

[TAdan]

I wonder how many missions a QF-4 has been able to successfully "evade" its fate. Or do all the missions eventually end with a *bang* ?

[Rajay]

Seems like it might be cheaper (and make it possible to "kill two birds with one stone") to buy up surplus Soviet Bloc fighters and use them as target drones instead. That way, our pilots get experience shooting down real enemy aircraft, there are fewer "enemy" aircraft out there to possibly oppose us, and we get to keep even our old F-16's etc which could be stored for future use, used for training, or flown by reserve units. Even an old F-16A is still a better fighter than a lot of the other stuff that's out there. Seems a shame to just blow them up for target practice.

[mustangdriver]

Yeah me too. Being that those F-4's are current military, Who knows what can happen to their funding and support. It's great to enjoy them while they are around. This is also why it is important to support the Collings foundation F-4 as they are dedicated to keeping it in the air.

[kmiles]

The reason they are switching from using the QF-4 to the QF-16 is not because they have used up all of the airframes in the drone program. As the weapon systems become more advanced, the F-4 becomes outdated even for the drone program. There is only so much you can add on to 60's technology and still remain effective at avoiding modern weapon systems. When CF got the F-4 in the mid-90's, there were more than 1300 airframes in storage. The latest numbers I have seen has that number at less than 500. So in 15 years there have been more than 800 F-4's that have been disposed of with only 6-8 per year from the drone program. Once the drone program is done using the QF-4, it is unlikely that the Air Force will keep all of the F-4 support equipment and people around just for a few QF-4's to use as air show aircraft.

[Pogmusic]

Rayjay,
Good idea. However, we already OWN the F-16 and have gotten many years good service out of them. With buying OpFor a/c, obviously, we'd have to BUY them first and then convert to drone status. Still, that may be cheaper than the QF-16 conversion cost.

The modern threat is much more capable than older WarPac a/c we could buy and I think the QF-16 offers the best threat compared to the new line of Su a/c coming out of Russia and also China.

[TimAPNY]

I'd be curious about the fiber components of the F-16 becoming hazardous to the range environment. That is assuming that the F-16 has similar material to the F/A-18s.

Tim