Airbus Defence and Space and US based Kratos Defense and Security Solutions have entered into a partnership based upon the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, a flight-proven UCCA (uncrewed collaborative battle airplane), which will be geared up with an Airbus made objective system, combat prepared for the German Air Force by 2029.
The XQ-58A is a low observable, rail-launched drone with a maximum take-off weight of three heaps.
It is designed to deliver kinetic and non-kinetic results, either in autonomous objectives or used with teaming capable fighter jets.
The prototype has remained in development for many years and is able to travel 3,000 miles at an altitude of up to 45,000 ft.Airbus mission system, through its platform-agnostic system architecture, is developed to integrate seamlessly into the Valkyrie and other existing and future platforms in the growing ecosystem of crewed and uncrewed platforms.In the offered disruptive geopolitical context, our customers have revealed an immediate demand for both attritable and non-attritable Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
The cooperation of Kratos and Airbus, based on an existing and shown UAS platform and including a sovereign multi-platform mission system, will provide essential capabilities for our warfighters in Europe before completion of the years.
This collaboration will assist to speed up Europes ability to defend itself while cultivating NATOs transatlantic ties, said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space.We have designed the Valkyrie system to be a cost effective and formidable CCA matched in collaborative style with manned aircraft, a team of uncrewed airplane, or a mix of both.
Based upon Valkyries shown flight capability, first shown in 2019, and the numerous mission systems, autonomy systems, and mission circumstances tested with the system over time, were excited about our partnership with Airbus which will result once again in a very first to market Valkyrie variant, now tuned for the European mission, stated Eric DeMarco, CEO of Kratos.Source: Airbus