US Air Force seeks target drones that mimic stealth fighters and bombers

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The Air Force wants drones spanning hobbyist toys to full stealth fighters

Fighter-mimicking drones must fly past Mach 1.6 at high altitude

Bomber-sized drones need matching radar, heat, and physical dimension signatures

The US Air Force is seeking industry proposals for target drones capable of imitating threats from cheap commercial aircraft to stealth fighters.

A recent Request for Information issued by the service sets a deadline of September 28 2026 for companies to submit concepts.

The requested drone series would span nearly every category of aerial threat, from small hobbyist-style platforms to heavy bombers.

A range of threats in one series

The Air Force's request describes platforms that must stand in for cheap hobbyist drones on one end and advanced fifth-generation fighters or large multiengine aircraft on the other.

For supersonic fighter simulation, the request describes speeds beyond Mach 1.6 at roughly 40,000 feet, combined with sharp high-G maneuvering.

It also calls for tightly controlled radar signatures and layered infrared and radio-frequency emissions meant to resemble a genuine combat aircraft.

Systems meant to stand in for large drones would need to operate at altitudes near 50,000 feet, matching how high those aircraft actually fly.

Midsize platforms would need to fly at speeds between Mach 0.5 and 0.8 while making sharp, forceful turns similar to real fighters.

Smaller systems, meant to substitute for compact scout-class drones, would fly well under 150 knots and support coordinated swarm behaviour.

For aircraft the size of a C-130, engineers care less about raw performance and more about matching physical scale, subsonic handling, and propulsion behaviour.

That accuracy allows engineers to test how well a missile's guidance system and warhead would perform against a realistically sized aircraft.

Cost and history shape the approach

The service is explicit that affordability matters as much as realism, describing a preference for systems cheap and simple enough to be treated as expendable when a test requires it.

Rather than relying solely on traditional defense contractors, the Air Force is inviting commercial, modified commercial, and dual-use proposals that might undercut the cost and complexity of older programs.

This approach follows nearly a century of remote-controlled target aircraft, stretching back to Britain's converted Tiger Moth trainers flown in the 1930s.

Since 2007, the Air Force has leaned on the BQM-167A, a subscale subsonic drone roughly 20 feet long, far smaller than a Chinese J-20 fighter or an H-6 bomber.

The service also operates the QF-16, a retired F-16 that has been converted to stand in as a full-scale fourth-generation threat aircraft.

Though it cannot convincingly replicate a modern stealth aircraft, it remains too costly to expend in large numbers.

After its recent military engagement in Iran, the U.S. has seen every reason to emphasize 'cheap' instead of 'performance.

In the war, the U.S. has lost approximately 45 MQ-9 Reaper drones — about 25% of its fleet — costing over $1.3 billion, to a series of comparatively cheap Iranian drones and missiles.

So, while the U.S. may or may not be winning the physical war, it is certainly not happy with the financial implications of the victories or losses.

Whether the commercial industry can actually deliver stealthy, high-speed, expendable drones at the price point the Air Force wants remains an open question.

Via Defense News