[ChuckMcM]

Technically its a "free" target dummy. The plane was sitting in a idle state in the AZ mothball storage area. Generally planes from that space go either into alternate commercial service (several air tankers have come from there), the junk yard, or foreign spare parts buys. There was a great write up in Air & Space magazine on this storage facility.

Given that they were not designed for particularly long loiter times, they would make better cruise missiles than they would drones but as a crack suicide air to air squad they would be hard to beat (the F-16 seems much more capable as an air superiority fighter, not so much on ground attack, Iron Eagle not withstanding :-)

[neurotech1]

The F-16C is a multirole strike fighter, although retaining the air-to-air capabilities of the earlier versions.

The F-22A is the USAFs Air Superiority fighter[1]. The F-14 and F-15 were the Air Superiority Fighter of the Navy and Air Force although they also became strike aircraft (F-14D and F-15E versions)

A single F-22 could down 4+ enemy fighters without even being seen, and the pilot coming back alive. The F-22 can also close for a gun kill. A Suicide squad of 4 F-16s would be hard pressed to beat that.

Just because a jet can dogfight does not make it an Air Superiority Fighter.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_superiority_fighter