A target drone is an

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operational from 1935. Its name led to the present term "drone". In their simplest form, target drones often resemble radio-controlled model aircraft. More modern drones may use

countermeasures A countermeasure is a measure or action taken to counter or offset another one. As a general concept, it implies precision and is any technological or tactical solution or system designed to prevent an undesirable outcome in the process. The fi ...

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

, and similar systems to mimic manned aircraft. More advanced drones are made from large, older missiles which have had their warheads removed. In the United Kingdom, obsolete

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

jet and propeller-powered aircraft (such as the

Fairey Firefly The Fairey Firefly is a Second World War-era carrier-borne fighter aircraft and anti-submarine aircraft that was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). It was developed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Avia ...

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

and de Havilland Sea Vixen used at RAE

Llanbedr Llanbedr () is a village and community south of Harlech. Administratively, it lies in the Ardudwy area, formerly Meirionnydd, of the county of Gwynedd, Wales. History Ancient monuments at Llanbedr include Neolithic standing stones; the St ...

between the 1950s and 1990s) have also been modified into remote-controlled drones, but such modifications are costly. With a much larger budget, the U.S. military has been more likely to convert retired aircraft or older versions of still serving aircraft (e.g., QF-4 Phantom II and QF-16 Fighting Falcon) into remotely piloted targets for

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

and

US Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

use as Full-Scale Aerial Targets.

List of target drones

Purpose built

* Aerial Target *

Airspeed Queen Wasp The Airspeed AS.30 Queen Wasp was a British pilotless target aircraft built by Airspeed Limited at Portsmouth during the Second World War. Although intended for both Royal Air Force and Royal Navy use, the aircraft never went into series pro ...

de Havilland Queen Bee The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...

DRDO Abhyas DRDO Abhyas is a high-speed expendable aerial target (HEAT) being built by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the Indian Armed Forces. Development As of January 2013 ...

DRDO Fluffy The DRDO Fluffy was a target drone designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation's Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) in Bangalore in early 1970s for use by the Indian Armed Forces. It had a maximum enduran ...

DRDO Lakshya Lakshya ("target" in Sanskrit) is an Indian remotely piloted high speed target drone system developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of DRDO. A variant ''Lakshya-1'' is used to perform discreet aerial reconnaissance of battl ...

DRDO Ulka Ulka (Sanskrit: meteor or firebrand) is an air-launched expendable target drone of India. Description It has been developed by DRDO's laboratory Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). Ulka was earlier simply known as MT (Missile Target). I ...

Denel Dynamics Skua The Denel Dynamics Skua is a turbojet-engined target drone used to simulate fast-moving attack aircraft during surface-to-air and air-to-air training exercises and weapons tests. It is manufactured by the Denel Dynamics division of the South Afri ...

Meggitt Banshee The BTT3 Banshee, formerly the Target Technology Banshee & Meggitt Banshee, is a British target drone developed in the 1980s for air defence systems training. Design and development The Banshee was developed by Target Technology Ltd. The compa ...

* Aisheng Drone-2 *

GAF Jindivik The GAF Jindivik is a radio-controlled target drone produced by the Australian Government Aircraft Factories (GAF). The name is from an Aboriginal Australian word meaning "the hunted one". Two manually-controlled prototypes, were built as the GAF ...

GAF Turana The GAF Turana was a target drone produced by the Australian Government Aircraft Factories (GAF). The name is believed to be from an Aboriginal Australian word meaning ''rainbow''. The Turana target drone was designed and built in Australia as ...

* MQM-170 * TAI Şimşek * Lockheed AQM-60 Kingfisher *

BQM-34 Firebee The Ryan Firebee is a series of target drones developed by the Ryan Aeronautical Company beginning in 1951. It was one of the first jet-propelled drones, and remains one of the most widely used target drones ever built. Development Ryan Fireb ...

* BQM-74 Chukar * BQM-167 Skeeter * Nord CT41 *

Karrar (UCAV) The HESA Karrar ( fa, کرار) is an Iranian jet-powered target drone manufactured by Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) since 2010. The Karrar is a derivative of the American 1970s-era Beechcraft MQM-107 Streaker target dro ...

* NCSIST Spark

Conversions

* Curtiss Queen Seamew *

de Havilland Vampire The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland, de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the Royal Air Force, RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and ...

Fairey Queen The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants. First flying on 14 September 1917, examples were still in us ...

* Miles Queen Martinet * QB-17 Flying Fortress * QT-33 Shooting Star * QB-47 Stratojet * QF-86 Sabre * QF-100 Super Sabre * QF-102 and PQM-102 Delta Dagger * QF-106 Delta Dart * QF-4 Phantom II * QF-16 Fighting Falcon * QF-9 Cougar

References

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