Air Force employing old F-16 “Viper” aircraft as remote-operated drones

[rangerrebew]

Air Force employing old F-16 “Viper” aircraft as remote-operated drones
 

FeaturedWIB air November 19, 2019 Andy Wolf 0

Older legacy variants of the F-16 “Viper” are getting a grand send-off without an end to their service- by being converted into high-end target drones that can attempt to outfly the human pilots whose skills they are designed to hone.
 

Known as the QF-16 (“Q” being the designation for target drones), the robo-vipers will provide Air Force pilots with a modern aircraft to tangle with over the Gulf of Mexico, providing a much more realistic challenge than the existing QF-4 fleet.

The QF-16s -many being veterans of conflicts dating back to the 1990s- have been gutted in the cockpit area and re-tooled to accept telemetry and control modules that allow pilots to fly the QF-16s from afar.

https://warisboring.com/air-force-employing-old-f-16-viper-aircraft-as-remote-operated-drones/

[PeteS in CA]

Converting obsolete fighters into high performance drones has been common USAF practice for a long time. I remember seeing mention and pix of QF-106s (began service in 1959).