On 22 September a grey-camouflaged Cazador de halcones lost engine thrust and went into the Pacific off Morro Bay, California. The pilot ejected and was rescued. The jet was not flying for any air force. It belonged to ATAC, a private company paid to play the enemy.

That is a bigger business than most people realise. Every time NATO pilots train for air combat, someone has to fly the other side, and more and more often that someone is a contractor in a former military jet. Three companies dominate the field: Top Aces, Draken and ATAC. Here is who they are, what they fly and why air forces hire them.

Why Air Forces Rent an Enemy

Good training needs a good opponent. Air forces have long kept their own "aggressor" squadrons for this, flying their fighters in enemy tactics and enemy-style paint. But aggressors are expensive, and every jet flying Red Air is a jet not doing a real mission.

El US Air Force hit that wall in the 2010s. When the F-15-equipped 65th Aggressor Squadron shut down in 2014, only the 64th Aggressor Squadron at Base de la Fuerza Aérea Nellis and the 18th at Eielson Air Force Base were left, both flying F-16s. Frontline squadrons had to send their own jets to fly as the enemy. In June 2015 the service tried something different: four Air National Guard F-16 units trained against A-4K Skyhawks flown by a contractor.

In October 2019 the Air Force went all in, splitting a Combat Air Forces Contracted Air Support contract worth up to $6.4 billion between seven companies. Contractors now fly Red Air at bases across the United States, freeing the military's own fighters and pilots for operational flying.

Draken: Adversary Training Across Land, Sea and Air

Draken grew out of Draken International, established in Lakeland, Florida, in 2011 from Jared Isaacman's Black Diamond Jet Team, which bought its first A-4K Skyhawks and MB-339s that year. In 2020 it acquired Cobham Aviation Services, including FR Aviation, a UK electronic-warfare training specialist since 1985, and the business has operated as Draken ever since. Today it provides adversary training across land, sea and air, with operations in the US, the UK, Europe and the Middle East. According to the company, its fleet of around 80 aircraft mixes ex-military jets with business jets: A-4 Skyhawks, Aero L-159s, Dassault Mirage F1s, 15 Dassault Falcon 20s, Bombardier Challenger 604s, Learjet 60XRs and Diamond DA42s.

Draken works alongside the 64th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis, and in June 2018 the Pentagon announced a $280 million contract for it to keep supporting the 57th Adversary Tactics Group there and at Luke and Hill. Blackstone took a majority stake in 2019. The work carries real risk: in May 2021 a Draken Mirage F1 crashed near Nellis, killing its pilot. A plan to buy up to 24 F-16s from the Netherlands and Norway was later cancelled, with those jets going to Ukraine and Romania instead.

A documentary on Draken and its former military jets. Video: Skynine, LLC

Top Aces: From Alpha Jets to F-16s

Top Aces was founded in Montreal in 2000 by three former Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 pilots. It provides Red Air, electronic warfare and other training services to Canada and, since 2014, to the German Air Force, with permanent bases in Canada, the US and Germany. Its fleet started with Alpha Jets and upgraded A-4N Skyhawks.

Then Top Aces did what no private company had done: it bought frontline-class fighters. It agreed to buy early-model F-16As from the Israeli Air Force, flew the first one in Mesa, Arizona, on 18 May 2021, and began flying them for the USAF in 2022. In 2024 the Canadian government contracted Top Aces to help train Ukrainian F-16 pilots.

The first flight of a Top Aces F-16 in Mesa, Arizona, 18 May 2021. Video: Top Aces

ATAC: Hunters, Kfirs and a Swiss Connection

The Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, ATAC, is based in Newport News, Virginia, and flies mainly from Naval Air Station Point Mugu in California, supporting the US Navy, US Air Force and Air National Guard. Textron bought it in 2016. Its fleet has included Hawker Hunters, IAI Kfirs, A-4 Skyhawks, L-39s and a large number of Mirage F1s.

Some of those Hunters have a MiGFlug-friendly history. The jet below, N322AX, began life in the Swiss Air Force as J-4087 before crossing the Atlantic to play the enemy for American pilots.

El Trago

Contract adversaries are cheaper than using frontline fighters, but they are not a perfect stand-in. Most of their jets are older and slower than the threats they are meant to represent, which is why the move to F-16s matters so much. And flying ageing, single-engine jets hard every day carries risk, as the Hunter lost off California in September showed. Still, the model has gone from experiment to standard practice in a decade. The next time you see a Skyhawk or a Mirage F1 in an exercise photo, there is a good chance it is a contractor on the other side.

A look at how Draken became a major contract adversary air provider. Video: WarFronts

Updated 15 October 2026 to correct details about Draken's name, history, fleet and operations, using information provided by the company.

Sources: Air & Space Forces Magazine ("Red Air for Hire", February 2018; "Seven Companies Split Adversary Training Contract Worth up to $6.4B", 2019); Draken (company history); Wikipedia (Top Aces; Draken International; Airborne Tactical Advantage Company); Top Aces; KSBY News.