F-35 Cancelled, then what ?

[FODPlod]

Originally Posted by ORAC

Last ever unmanned QF-4 flight acted a target for an F-35 firing 2 x AIM-120, and survived. Some scepticism as to the claim it was supposed and the Mx were made to self-destruct.

https://theaviationist.com/2016/08/3...-and-survives/

I wonder how many other missile test firings this particular QF-4 has 'survived' during its service? It's almost as though someone might want to retain its DAS and other expensive gizmos and recover the full telemetry data for detailed analysis.

I believe we've even flown the odd re-usable target drone in the past ourselves.