UNMANNED SYSTEMS UPDATE

28 Jun 12. The US Air Force is set to take delivery of six QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) drones from Boeing for additional testing over the Gulf Range, before the end of 2012. Boeing global maintenance and upgrades business vice president, Torbjorn Sjogren, was quoted by Flight Global as saying that Boeing had completed the first test flight of the aircraft and evaluated various aspects of its unmanned capability. The aircraft had undergone manned flight testing to demonstrate the basic performance of the newly installed modification package on 4 May 2012 at Cecil Field in Jacksonville, Florida, US. The QF-16 is installed with advanced features such as flight termination and visual augmentation systems to simulate fourth-generation threats like the Russian Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum or Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fighters, but the USAF has not yet defined the added capabilities it requires, according to Sjogren. (Source: airforcetechnology.com)