The professional adversaries
Preparing the warfighter to win.
In today’s costly, complex and connected environments, Draken provides multi-domain and networked threat replication that tests the whole force. We deliver the operational readiness training that guarantees the most realistic, stressing and valuable preparation for success in combat.
Military forces must train and learn using realistic, relevant operational threat replication to remain ready and proficient. To do this in the best way possible, our customers rely on the experience, knowledge and rigour of the team at Draken, the professional adversaries.
Draken bases
Ready where you are.
Our team delivers world-class multi-domain adversary training.
On the ground, at sea or in the air, militaries including the US Air Force, the UK’s RAF and members of the NATO alliance and their partners rely on our skills.
We work with leading technologies and a varied fleet of aircraft to deliver complex, highly regulated adversary training across land, sea and air.
With bases in the US, Europe and the Middle East, our people support more than 25 nations annually, from elementary electronic warfare training to whole-force multinational exercises. From the classroom to the live domain, our adversary training services ensure warfighters are prepared to prevail.
Aviation pioneers in our DNA
With a transatlantic heritage encompassing aerospace businesses in the US and the UK, Draken's roots go back to the earliest pioneers of aviation. The company has its origins in two complimentary organisations: Draken International LLC, a provider of contract air services established in the US in 2011, and FR Aviation Ltd, a UK-based provider of electronic warfare training since 1985, and formerly part of Cobham Plc. United as Draken since 2020, the timeline on these pages highlights some of our collective milestones.
Going the distance
During 1939, FRL played a key role in several nonstop crossings of the Atlantic performed by the flying boats of the British airline Imperial Airways. However, it was the adoption of aerial refuelling by the United States Air Force during the initial postwar years that would perhaps most prominently highlight the technology's value.
Entering new markets
During 1954, Alan Cobham's son Michael, took a role in the company and began to steer it into new markets. One such venture saw the reorganisation of Cobham Group's Airfield Services division into a newly incorporated entity FR Aviation — the name still associated with Draken’s UK operations. This saw contractor-owned and operated aircraft flying directly alongside military customers, just as today.
1934 1939 1949 1954 1982
The Journey Begins
In the UK, Flight Refuelling Ltd (FRL — the forerunner of FR Aviation Ltd which became part of Draken in 2020) was founded by the English long-distance aviation pioneer Sir Alan Cobham KBE AFC in 1934. Its focus was the development of aerial refuelling systems, building on his experimental work and recordbreaking intercontinental flights in the 1920s.
Innovating into the future
In early 1949, FRL developed the new ‘probe and drogue’ in-flight refuelling system, a technique later adopted by many air forces worldwide. That same year, a converted Meteor 3 jet fighter, with an in-flight refuelling probe in the nose, stayed airborne for more than 12 hours, taking on fuel from a Lancaster tanker. The RAF and the USAF quickly adopted the new system, reinforcing the historic ties our company has with these two forces.
Answering an urgent training need
In 1982, UK forces suffered painful losses during the Falklands conflict. The subsequent Board of Inquiry into the sinking of the destroyer HMS Sheffield highlighted an urgent need, saying: “Training and doctrine for defence against sea-skimming missiles must highlight the supreme importance of vigilance, and of instant, full reactions on first indication of possible attack.” Three years later, FR Aviation Ltd was established in direct response the demand.
Draken takes flight
Established in Lakeland, Florida, in 2011, Draken International was set up specifically to address a training demand met by privately contracted adversary air services. It evolved out of the Black Diamond Jet Team, a display team owned by Draken’s founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, Jared Isaacman. In 2011, the company purchased its first aircraft, A-4k Skyhawks and MB339s.
2011
Draken’s first AdAir contracts
In June 2015, Draken delivered its first-ever contracted events, beginning with Close Air Support for the US Marine Corps at Twentynine Palms, California, flying A-4K Skyhawks out of Yuma, Arizona. The following week, A-4K Skyhawks were in action again for Draken’s first Adversary Air event, when they took part in the Northern Lightning exercise at Volk Field, Wisconsin.
2014
Skyhawks inbound
Expanding its A4 fleet, in 2014 Draken conducted a major “translant”, flying six A-4N aircraft, formerly flown by BAE Systems, from Wittmund, Germany, then Prestwick, Scotland, on to Keflavik, Iceland, then Kangersulaaq, Greenland, to Goose Bay, Canada and finally to Lakeland, Florida. The A-4 Skyhawk still forms the backbone of many of the services our teams in the US deliver today.
Major contract wins
Draken saw two major contract awards in the US in 2018, with the DoD announcing that the USAF had awarded us a $280million contract to provide training services to the 57th Adversary Tactics Group at Nellis AFB in Nevada, as well as Luke AFB in Arizona and Hill AFB in Utah. In November, the Air National Guard awarded Draken a five-year contract to deliver Red Air throughout the US.
2015 2015 2018
First F-35 support
August 2015 saw Draken make the headlines when it supported the Royal Netherlands Air Force and the US Marine Corps, flying as Red Air during operational integration tests with F-16s, F-35As and F-35Bs out of Edwards AFB, California. This created a buzz as it marked the first time that the new fifth generation fighter jet had flown on training sorties alongside third- and fourthgeneration aircraft.
Growing globally
Following the acquisition of Cobham Aviation Services (including FR Aviation Ltd), Draken’s presence in the European market was assured. The combination of Draken’s US-based Red Air expertise, and FR Aviation’s UK-based live electronic warfare training focus gave this new entity a uniquely strong position from which to grow the business globally.
2019 2020 2022
Support under new ownership
The private equity specialist Blackstone acquired a majority interest in Draken in 2019. In the same year, Draken was one of seven companies awarded an IDIQ contract to support the USAF’s Combat Air Force Contract Air Services (CAFCAS) program.
Draken’s Red Air enters Europe
In 2022, Draken won the first contract of its kind in the UK — the Interim Red Air Aggressor Training Service (IRAATS). Supporting the Royal Air Force, the new service — flown out of Draken’s Teesside base — has brought Draken’s Red Air services into Europe, and sees the L-159E Honey Badger, an ex-military fighter, flying daily as an aggressor. The first IRAATS sortie was flown in the North Sea training area in December 2022.
Mission focused.
On the ground or in the air, at Draken you will find a group of people drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, but all are focused on one thing — the task at hand. To put it in military terms, our people are our ‘force multipliers’.
Collectively they acknowledge that, day or night, no mission ever gets off the ground without meticulous planning, rigorous safety checks and the right expertise.
Red Air... The strike of the sword.
We describe our agile ‘Red Air’ training as the ‘sword’ effect: mimicking the tactics and techniques of the enemy in ex-military fighter jets such as the L-159E ‘Honey Badger’, the A4 Skyhawk and the F1 Mirage. We fly as the red team, accurately replicating the conditions of a contested battlespace.
Our Red Air aggressor pilots regularly take part in training sorties that challenge multiple nations at once. Our objective is always to present a credible opposition, whichever military we support and whatever their level of experience.
Our Red Air services develop skills for front line personnel, but our focus is not purely on fighter manoeuvres and the pilot’s role. Training this cadre is vital, but our Red Air services extend to whole force training in multiple domains, testing the readiness of the system in its entirety including the battlespace managers, radar operators, and ground crew. We don’t concentrate our effort on the tip of the sword alone.
Electronic Warfare: deploying the shield
The operational effectiveness of any force can be quickly compromised by an adversary with the ability to manipulate the Electronic Warfare (EW) spectrum. Exposure to these effects in advance through regular training enables front line personnel to recognise and counter such threats instinctively when it matters for real.
This is the core rationale that underpins our live EW training. Reflecting an adversary’s defensive arsenal, we characterise the broad range of effects that our fleet of modified Dassault Falcon 20 EW business jets and UAV-emulating Diamond DA42 aircraft deliver as the EW ‘shield’. In total, our EW ‘shield’ offers a unique capability across the span of training requirements for air forces, navies and land forces.
The sword and shield combined
The sum is greater than the parts... And when Draken blends the ‘shield’ of our Electronic Warfare services with the ‘sword’ of our live Red Air services, the result is an exacting training effect that creates the optimal conditions in which to train even the very latest fifth generation fighter pilots.
With a whole-force approach managed by Draken, including innovative Red Air co-ordination and Live EW and Red Air services, our team delivers a training effect geared specifically to enhancing warfighting proficiency.
With thanks
The majority of the photographs in this book were created by one of Draken’s team, Paul Heasman. A former fighter pilot in the RAF, Paul works as one of our Electronic Warfare Officers flying out of our Teesside base in NE England. When not putting the RAF through their paces over the North Sea, Paul spends much of his time chronicling life at Draken with camera in hand.
Integrity...
Our customers expect us to act with the same integrity they bring to their operations. We are trusted to support the protection of people, territories, values and interests. We don’t take the task lightly.
Service...
To us, service means putting others’ needs first. It demands collaboration and an innate understanding of our customers’ requirements. If we serve them correctly, we help them set the conditions for success.
Excellence...
Excellence demands a commitment to improvement, innovation and the highest of standards. Talented people can deliver, but an excellent organisation delivers an environment in which that talent can grow.
Teamwork...
At Draken, each of us has a role in the delivery of our services. Whether a pilot or a procurement manager, ultimately it is cohesive teamwork that ensures our aircraft can operate in the air safely and effectively.
