A little-known company in California’s high desert will deliver a new prototype aircraft to help the US military train its pilots against advanced stealth fighters.

Tehachapi-based Sierra Technical Services (STS) was awarded a $77.1 million Pentagon contract on 4 August to deliver a prototype uncrewed aerial target aircraft capable of replicating the flight characteristics of the most-advanced enemy fighter jets.

“Key amongst these characteristics”, according to the Pentagon, “is size, signature and electronic attack payloads.”

Those attributes “significantly impact acquisition, tracking and guidance of anti-air systems”, the Pentagon contract announcement with STS notes, saying the fifth-generation traits must be “adequately represented” in a target platform to ensure proper testing.

STS has previously described its experimental 5th Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) as a “high-performance, unmanned, fighter-size aircraft” meant to be “threat representative”, including low observability.