Tiny JSX-2 microjets, each with a pilot crammed inside, have been zipping around the skies over Michigan playing the part of hostile aerial threats like drones and cruise missiles as part of a large force exercise.
The use of the JSX-2s in this role underscores U.S. military concerns about the ever-growing dangers drones and cruise missiles pose, including to the U.S. homeland, and the parallel demand for more and better ways to simulate them in training.
The U.S. Air National Guard recently released pictures of two JSX-2s with the U.S. civil registrations N55KX and N66KX operating from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center in Michigan as part of Exercise Northern Strike 24-2. The Michigan National Guard’s National All-Domain Warfighting Center (NADWC) is leading the exercise, which kicked off on August 3 and is scheduled to wrap up on August 17.
“Northern Strike (NS) 24-2 [is] one of the Department of Defense’s largest reserve component readiness exercises” and is “focused on expeditionary skills, command and control, sustainment and joint integrated fires,” according to a Michigan National Guard press release. More than 6,300 personnel from 32 U.S. states and territories, as well as “five international partners,” are participating in this latest iteration of Northern Strike, which has air, maritime, and ground components.
The single-seat JSX-2 is powered by a small TJ100 turbojet made by PBS Aerospace in the Czech Republic, which has a maximum thrust output of 281 pounds, according to the manufacturer. It is an evolution of the JSX-1 from Oshkosh, Wisconsin-headquartered Sonex Aircraft, which was unveiled in 2009. The improved JSX-2 that followed in the early 2010s is bigger and has a more streamlined design, as well as fully retractable landing gear. It also has a parachute recovery system that can be deployed via rocket in the event of an inflight emergency.
The JSX-1 and JSX-2 have been sold in kit form on the commercial market. Sonex markets its current iteration of the kit as the SubSonex Personal Jet, a design it says has a cruising speed between 230 and 240 miles per hour and a maximum range of 410 miles.
A private company called KestrelX is operating the JSX-2s at Northern Strike 24-2. Public records show this firm received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the U.S. Air Force valued at just over $725,000 for “UAV [uncrewed aerial vehicle] and Cruise Missile Threat Replication Aircraft” back in 2021. SBIR is a U.S. government contracting mechanism intended to help foster technical innovation through smaller deals with smaller companies.
How the JSX-2s flying at Northern Strike 24-2 may be specifically configured for their threat replication role is unclear. Pictures from Northern Strike 24-2 do show N55KX and N66KX with gondolas underneath their fuselages not seen on typical civilian examples of the microjet. These might contain additional equipment to support their military training role or be used to hold extra fuel or even luggage.
“This year’s summer iteration of the annual exercise will incorporate training scenarios involving homeland security and defense against unmanned aerial systems,”
the Michigan National Guard’s press release on the exercise notes.
Photo: Michigan National Guard/Air National Guard
Source: The War Zone