Boeing has converted six Lockheed Martin F-16s into QF-16 target drones and is on track to reach initial operational capability by the first quarter of Fiscal 2016, Boeing spokesman Lorenzo Cortez told Air Force Magazine. The QF-16s are presently performing test missions at Tyndall AFB, Fla., and White Sands Missile Range, N.M. As of now, the QF-16 is limited to line-of-sight operations, but Boeing is working to address those limitations. “We are presently completing flight tests of the QF-16 for the aerial target requirements. This includes a line-of-sight datalink, which meets those requirements” for longer range remote piloting, said Cortez. The Air Force contracted Boeing in 2010 to convert 126 retired F-16 Falcons into QF-16 aerial drones. (See also QF-16 Flies with Empty Cockpit.)
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
