The 82nd Aerial Target Squadron at Tyndall AFB, Fla., received the last QF-4 Phantom in mid-November. The Vietnam-era F-4—aircraft 68-0599—was regenerated from storage and turned in to a remotely piloted aircraft that will be used as an unmanned-full-scale-aerial target during training exercises, according to a Nov. 22 release. The Defense Department converted more than 300 retired F-4s into the QF-4 variant beginning in the late 1990s. Since then, the QF-4 fleet has flown more than 16,000 manned and 600 unmanned missions. Two hundred Phantoms have been destroyed over the Gulf of Mexico and the ranges near Holloman AFB, N.M., according to the release. Only 60 Phantoms remain today at Tyndall and Holloman. “It is a more fitting end for the F-4 to go out in service instead of rusting in a field,” said Vincent Farrell, 82nd ATRS instructor pilot and controller who flew the F-4 during his active duty career.
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…