Draken International has been awarded a $280 million contract for adversary air aggressor services (ADAIR), the US Department of Defense said on June 1st, 2018.

Draken's L-159E ALCA is a brand new fighter aircraft equipped with an advanced 4th generation Selex Grifo-L Radar and attack suite
(Credit: Draken International)

ADAIR services provides tactical fighter jet aircraft flight operations flown by contractor-owned, contractor-operated aircraft simulating non-western aggressor air for the US Air Force 57th Adversary Tactics Group, the service said. 

“Work will be performed at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and is expected to be complete by December 2023,” the US DoD added. 

According to the Pentagon, Draken will furnish, operate, equip, support and maintain tactically-relevant aircraft for air-to-air tracking, targeting, and ADAIR operations. 

Aggressor sorties are generated by COCO flight operations, to provide combat air training services that include tactical profiles, to include beyond-visual-range engagements, operational test support, dissimilar air combat maneuvers, offensive and defensive within-visual-range maneuvers, multi-ship tactics, merges, and flight. 

ADAIR sorties will integrate as part of the US Air Force aggressor force in support of ADAIR requirements. 

Draken has been the sole provider of commercial adversary support for the USAF at Nellis since December of 2015, flying over 2,600+ sorties and 4,000+ flight hours in this time. In addition to this increased presence at Nellis, Draken recently exercised a global reach capability in an effort to support the Fighter Weapons Instructor Training (FWIT) program hosted by the No. 322 Squadron of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF).