Friday, March 29, 2024

Kratos to provide U.S. Air Force with target aircraft for realistic weapons-release training

U.S. defense contractor Kratos Defense & Security Solutions said on Wednesday it had got a $31,8 million order for delivering BQM-167A subscale aerial targets to the U.S. Air Force.

Kratos announced that it’s Unmanned Systems Division has received a $31,876,681 award for the Lot 15 option on a previously awarded Air Force Subscale Aerial Target (AFSAT) Lots 14-16 contract FA8678-18-C-0002.

Kratos will provide an additional quantity of 35 AFSAT production target aircraft and the associated warranty. Work will be performed in Sacramento, California, and is expected to be complete by 31 May 2021. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity.

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Kratos target drone systems are used by U.S. and allied militaries around the globe as high fidelity enemy threat surrogates, simulating performance characteristics of certain threat aircraft and missiles, for weapons testing, development, and training requirements. Kratos is a leading provider of high performance unmanned aerial drone and target systems, unmanned aerial, ground and sea platforms, command, control, avionics control, and termination systems.

Steve Fendley, President of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, said, “With our business now heavily weighted in rate production of several models of our jet drone aircraft, the AFSAT BQM-167A begins its 15thproduction lot. This milestone represents an exciting achievement for the company as the BQM-167A provided the original business foundation for our now, many systems across our unmanned jet target and tactical portfolio. Kratos is proud to provide the United States Air Force the highest performance Unmanned Aerial Target Drones in the world for their Mission Critical Requirements. Our USAF customer is one of our most demanding, and we are honored to be the provider of these mission critical systems. We look forward to continuing to evolve the BQM-167A for the ever evolving threats and supporting the USAF well into the future.” 

The company’s website said the BQM-167A Air Force Subscale Aerial Target (AFSAT) is the only subscale aerial target platform operated by the U.S. Air Force. The primary role of the BQM-167A is to provide U.S. Air Force aviators with the world’s most realistic and comprehensive end-to-end weapons-release training.

The versatile design of the BQM-167A supports various mission requirements by accepting a wide array of internal and external payloads including scoring (vector and scalar), Identification Friend-or-Foe (IFF), passive and active radar augmentation, electronic countermeasures, infrared (IR) augmentation (plume pods), and internally stored chaff and flares.

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Executive Editor

About author:

Dylan Malyasov
Dylan Malyasov
Dylan Malyasov is the editor-in-chief of Defence Blog. He is a journalist, an accredited defense advisor, and a consultant. His background as a defense advisor and consultant adds a unique perspective to his journalistic endeavors, ensuring that his reporting is well-informed and authoritative. read more

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