Originally Posted by
FODPlod
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.
The QF-4 does not need to survive a missile shot to have the telemetry data recovered, it's all transmitted live during the flight by the 'expensive gizmos', having the jet back on the ground provides no more info than if it was actually shot down, except for maybe the blast/frag pattern if it survives a live warhead shot...
-RP