The US Air Force is seeking a new family of target drones designed to simulate Chinese J-20 stealth fighters, bombers, and combat unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a report by Defense News.
In a formal request, the military aviation service stated that prospective target drones must replicate the entire spectrum of modern airborne threats, including low-observable stealth aircraft. The service specified that the new unmanned craft must achieve supersonic speeds, possess high maneuverability, and maintain precise radar signature profiles to match specific aircraft types.
The target drones will be deployed to evaluate and validate guidance systems for air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles. By generating realistic radar returns and performance profiles, the target aircraft are intended to ensure missile seekers can detect, track, and engage advanced adversary platforms during live-fire testing.
Existing drone limitations
The US Air Force currently relies on the subscale BQM-167A target drone for aerial testing. Defense News noted that the subsonic craft is inadequate for mimicking larger adversary stealth jets. Measuring six meters in length with a wingspan of 3.3 meters, the BQM-167A is significantly smaller than China's front-line warplanes, including the 20-meter-long J-20 stealth fighter and the H-6 bomber, which features a wingspan of 33 meters.
The BQM-167A Skeeter has long served as a standard aerial target for United States military weapons testing, designed primarily to simulate subsonic cruise missiles and conventional jet fighters. However, replicating fifth-generation stealth jets like the Chengdu J-20 requires specialized target platforms capable of matching both the physical size and low-radar-visibility characteristics of heavy twin-engine fighters.
Expanding fleet of adversary fighters
The requirement for more realistic target systems reflects the growing size of China's stealth aviation force. In July, military defense publication TWZ calculated that the People's Liberation Army Air Force has fielded more than 300 fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighters in its military inventory.
In addition to fighter aircraft, Chinese military aviation relies on platforms like the Xi'an H-6, a strategic twin-engine bomber based on Soviet aircraft designs that serves as China's primary airborne long-range strike platform. Introducing high-speed, maneuvering target drones with accurate radar signatures is designed to allow weapons testing programs to simulate both fighter and bomber threats accurately.
