USAF Preserves Historic 9/11 F-16 Drones from Live-Fire Destruction
The U.S. Air Force and National Guard Bureau have finalized plans to preserve three historic F-16 fighters that scrambled to defend Washington, D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001, diverting them from planned destruction as QF-16 full-scale aerial target drones.
The U.S. Air Force, alongside the National Guard Bureau and congressional advocates, has finalized preservation plans for three historic F-16 Fighting Falcons that scrambled to defend Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001. Flown on 9/11 by prominent aviators—including now-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, retired Lt. Gen. Marc Sasseville, and Mitchell Institute director Heather Penney—the airframes were previously slated for destructive live-fire missile tests after being converted into QF-16 Full-Scale Aerial Targets.
The disposition of these aircraft highlights a delicate friction point within Air Force fleet management: balancing historic preservation against target drone inventory requirements. Converting legacy F-16 Vipers into QF-16 unmanned targets costs approximately $5 million per aircraft. Boeing delivered the final unit of a 127-aircraft conversion program in April 2025. These full-scale targets are essential for validating advanced weapons systems, including the USAF’s priority AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) program, which requires realistic target platforms for beyond-visual-range testing. Because one 9/11 F-16 QF-16 had already been destroyed in prior missile testing, saving the remaining tails required urgent interagency intervention.
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