Capability
RedSpecter Defense intends to provide jet-powered, recoverable adversary-air drones for U.S. military training and weapons test and evaluation. The work is threat presentation. It is not intercept, strike, or in-service fielding.
Air vehicle class
The intended platform class is the Kratos MQM-178 Firejet class: a compact, jet-powered, high-subsonic aerial target. Publicly described attributes of that class include pneumatic launch from land or ship, parachute recovery, and modular payload stations for radio-frequency and infrared augmentation.
RedSpecter Defense does not manufacture the Firejet. We do not claim a signed production or services contract with Kratos. The class is named because it is the performance and recovery envelope we intend to field for training and T&E—not because this company is the OEM.
Unclassified. No export-controlled how-to, frequencies, seeker data, or integration procedures are published here.
Profiles
Manned contracted Red Air cannot cheaply reproduce the numbers, signatures, or kinematics of the threats driving current tactics. The intended presentations are those threats—not a fighter pretending to be them.
High-subsonic, low-altitude, and range-relevant presentations for air-to-air and surface-to-air weapons training and T&E. Sea-skimming geometry is in scope for Navy and joint use. Specific mission profiles would be set with the using command and the range.
Attritable, recoverable stand-ins for one-way attack drones. The point is repetition at cost: many presentations per training day, recovered and flown again, rather than a single expendable shot or a manned fighter burning hours as a surrogate.
Numbers in the air
01
Threat-representative target work for sensors, weapons, and aircrew. Manual or pre-programmed profiles, as the class allows.
02
Several air vehicles on a range at once. Density is the training problem the manned Red Air market does not price well.
03
Autonomous or semi-autonomous relational maneuvering is intended via domestic teaming (including Shield AI). It is not a fielded RedSpecter product today.
Payloads
Payloads would be selected for the using service and the event. The list below is category-level. It is not an integration guide.
These drones are targets and training aids. RedSpecter Defense is not offering an interceptor, a loitering munition, or a combat shooter. We do not publish payload internals, waveforms, or installation procedures on this site.
Launch & recovery
The intended class is pneumatically launched and parachute-recoverable. That combination is why a jet target can be priced as a training hour instead of a one-way round.
Launch from land is the baseline. Shipboard pneumatic launch is a documented attribute of the Firejet class and is relevant to Navy training. Recovery and turnaround procedures would be developed with range and using-command constraints. Nothing on this page is a field manual.
Attritable in this context means the air vehicle can be risked in weapons T&E. Recoverable means the default training sortie is not a write-off.
