Technicians at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., are on track to finish the final conversion of a retired F-4 fighter into a target drone around mid-February, according to a base release. This aircraft will be the 316th F-4 converted to a remotely controlled QF-4 full-scale aerial target since the AMARG began these regenerations in 2001, states the Jan. 25 release. The Air Force is transitioning from the QF-4 to the QF-16 as its full-scale aerial target drone. The last QF-4s will support Army ground-to-air training at Holloman AFB, N.M., and air-to-air combat training at Tyndall AFB, Fla., states the release. An F-4 conversion takes an average of 9,000 man hours—about 277 calendar days—to complete, according to the release. (Davis-Monthan report by A1C Josh Slavin) (See also Three-Hundredth QF-4 Delivered.)
Pentagon officials overseeing homeland counter-drone strategy told lawmakers that even with preliminary moves to bolster U.S. base defenses, the military still lacks the capability to comprehensively identify, track, and engage hostile drones like those that breached the airspace of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days in December…