defense

US QF Air Target Aircraft

The US modifies some of the jet fighters it takes out of service, gives them a Q code and uses them as "unmanned aerial target aircraft" for many years. The US Air Force (USAF) has been conducting this practice effectively since the 60s. The aircraft types that have formed Aerial Target Squadrons to date are as follows:

The US modifies some of the jet fighters it takes out of service, gives them the Q code and uses them as "unmanned aerial target aircraft" for many years. The US Air Force (USAF) has been conducting this practice effectively since the 60s. The aircraft types that have formed Aerial Target Squadrons to date are as follows:

1. QF6F Hellcat, WWII aircraft with radial cylinder engine

QF-86 Sabre, Jet Powered

QF-100 Super Sabre, Jet-powered, Supersonic, Mach 1.4

QF-102 Delta Dagger, Jet-powered, Supersonic, Mach 2

QF-104 Starfighter, Jet Powered, Supersonic, Mach 2

QF-106 Delta Dart, Jet Powered, Supersonic, Mach 2

QF-4 Phantom II, Jet Powered, Supersonic, Mach 2

QF-16 Fighting Falcon, Jet Powered, Supersonic, Mach 2

The prominent parts of the wing, vertical and horizontal stabilizers of QF aircraft are painted in red/tan.

Figure 1: QF-4 with some fuselage sections painted red.

What are QF Aerial Target Aircraft for?

The QF is a remotely controlled target that simulates enemy aircraft maneuvers. The aerial target can be flown by remote control or with a safety pilot to monitor its performance. The QF is flown unmanned when missiles are fired at it and only in a specific surface airspace authorized for unmanned flight. When flown unmanned, an explosive device is placed on the QF to destroy the aircraft if it accidentally becomes uncontrollable.

The QF is equipped to carry electronic and infrared countermeasures to fully assess fighters and weapons flying and firing against it. Full-scale aircraft can be flown entirely by computer or controlled manually using a mobile control station located on the runway during take-off and landing. As a safety measure, a tracking aircraft follows the QF during critical flight periods.

The USAF's current QF aircraft is the QF-16.

The remote flight control systems were designed by the Boeing Company. The Boeing team leverages the capabilities of the entire Boeing Company to execute the QF-16 air target program. The QF-16 is equipped with advanced test and fault isolation Unique Support Equipment. All eight wing stations have an active, pre-wired redundant payload separate and a modular payload design for easy programmability. Boeing and the U.S. Air Force conducted the first unmanned flight of the QF-16 Full-Scale Air Target in 2013 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. The QF-16 mission profile includes automatic takeoff without a pilot in the cockpit, a series of simulated maneuvers, supersonic flight and automatic landing.

Do QF Aircraft get shot down in the air every time they take off?

Of course not; that would be extremely expensive training. Moreover, you can only shoot them down in specific and secured over-sea areas. These are airplanes that can fly both manned and unmanned. The previous kings can be shot down in larger quantities if their successors are ready, but if the remote control systems on them are to be used on the successor, they will be more selective.

In order to test special ammunition in a real environment, for example, the AIM-120 AMRAAM, which is a groundbreaking air defense missile and introduced the concept of "Fire and Forget" to the aviation literature, has been launched many times on QF aircraft.

QF aircraft were used extensively for the development of the AIM-120, especially for the test phases. In the photo below, you can see a QF-100 shot down by an AIM-120 launched from an F-16.

Figure 2: QF-100 shot down by an AIM-120 AMRAAM launched from an F-16.

What are the exact missions required from QF Aircraft?

Manned/Unmanned Flight

The relevant company (e.g. Boeing) receives the manned fighter aircraft (e.g. F-16) from the USAF, installs a series of systems on the aircraft, and delivers it to the USAF so that it can fly both unmanned and manned.

Self-Flight

The mission profile of Autonomous Flight includes automatic take-off without a pilot in the cockpit, a series of simulated maneuvers, supersonic flight and automatic landing.

Being a Familiar Aircraft

The USAF has always preferred to build QF aircraft from the aircraft it commonly uses. The current QF-16 is based on the F-16A and F-16C, which are single-seat versions of the US Air Force's single-engine supersonic multi-role tactical fighter/bomber.

Actual Fire Tests

During exercises with live ammunition firing, the USAF uses the unmanned QF-16 as a target for live fire tests.

Self-flying QF-16s are helping to develop the autonomous unmanned fighter of the future.

An autonomous unmanned combat aircraft is an aircraft that does not require ground control and performs its mission with its own artificial intelligence (For detailed information, see Ref.-1).

The USAF's "Venom" project aims to use test data to train an AI (Artificial Intelligence) engine that can be widely used.

The USAF is equipping F-16s to fly autonomously, but that's not the main goal of automating one of the service's most numerous combat aircraft. Instead, the Venom project aims to refine an AI engine to fly the wide variety of aircraft of today and tomorrow.

Venom is part of a years-long effort to develop aircraft that can operate alongside crewed aircraft or operate autonomously.

This is not the first time the USAF has built an AI QF-16 aircraft. It did so in 2018 with the Have Raider II program. It did so mainly to modify a QF-16 to test and train AI software, and to develop the XQ-58 Valkyrie and X-62 Vista UAVs based on the results of the tests.

The QF-16 Vista aircraft is great for ground control, it's a safety package to enhance autonomous capabilities. What we didn't have on that aircraft was a lot of sensors. Now in your QF-16 Venom aircraft, you have radar, you have electronic warning, you have all these things that you can now extend your autonomy algorithm to react to inputs. It starts making decisions on its own behalf. This is an important evolution towards scaling what an autonomous aircraft - an unmanned aircraft that doesn't need ground control - can do.

The goal is not a perfect pilotless F-16, but rather to refine an autonomous software engine that can be useful across aircraft and develop concepts for operating autonomous aircraft in conjunction with other aircraft or in conjunction with other aircraft.

What Do QF Aircraft Promise to User Countries?

If countries use their decommissioned aircraft as air targets instead of turning them into scrap;

 They know that the training of their existing fighter pilots in attacking real flying targets will be much better and more complete than simulated training.

 They know that QF aircraft will be used in the development of unmanned combat aircraft.

 They know that QF aircraft can be used in the development of unmanned autonomous combat aircraft with artificial intelligence that do not require ground control.

 They also know that QF aircraft can be used to attack enemy targets as kamikaze aircraft.

Conclusion and Recommendations:

Let's not keep the aircraft (F-5, F-4) that we will take out of service in the near future. Let's protect them with stockpiling and store them in a region with low humidity (e.g. Eskişehir). We have the technology that will enable us to use unmanned aerial target drones. We also have the telemetry technology to operate these aircraft from the ground. We can use the Black Sea as a safe overwater training zone. We can allocate or lease our QF aircraft to support companies that will develop UAVs/UAVs. Even if we do none of these, we can keep our aircraft in stockpile for deterrence purposes. We cannot afford to scrap our fighter jets, these extremely valuable machines. We must prioritize QF technology and systems.