A St. Louis-based unit of Boeing won a contract worth about $69.7 million by the U.S. Air Force for the initial engineering, manufacturing and development of QF-16 Full Scale Aerial Targets, drone planes that will act as targets for newly developed weapons.
The remainder of the QF-16 contract, expected to be awarded in coming years, calls for up to 126 of the drones to be delivered beginning in 2014, according to Boeing. The QF-16 will replace the QF-4 fleet.