Target drone

A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle. It is usually remote controlled and used to train anti-aircraft crews.

One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee. It was a version of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft and started being used in 1935. Its name is where the word “drone” comes from.

Ryan BQM-34 Firebee jet-propelled drone, used as a target drone

Simple target drones can look like radio-controlled model planes. Newer drones might use countermeasures, radar, and other systems to act like real airplanes.

Some advanced drones are made from old missiles that have had their warheads taken out.

In the United Kingdom, old Royal Air Force and Royal Navy airplanes (such as the Fairey Firefly, Gloster Meteor and de Havilland Sea Vixen) were sometimes changed into remote-controlled drones. But this was expensive. The U.S. military has changed retired airplanes or older versions of planes still in use (like the QF-4 Phantom II and QF-16 Fighting Falcon) into remote-controlled targets for the US Air Force, US Navy and US Marine Corps.

List of target drones

QF-4E from the 82d Aerial Targets Squadron detachment at Holloman AFB, flying manned at a McGuire AFB air show in May 2007 with an A-10A in the background

List of target drones

Purpose built

Conversions

Images

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