XQ-58 Valkyrie Heading To European Market With Kratos-Airbus Team-Up

Yahoo

4 days ago

Airbus Defense and Space has teamed up with Kratos Defense and Security Solutions to provide the stealthy XQ-58A Valkyrie drone to the German Luftwaffe. The development could see the Valkyrie being offered to a range of other European nations, alongside Germany, potentially filling an emerging niche for 'loyal wingman'-type drones, along with other roles, with a number of air forces.
The partnership between Airbus and Kratos will see the European firm equip the XQ-58A with a new mission system, details of which otherwise remain scarce, other than the fact that it will feature a 'platform-agnostic system architecture,' meaning that it can be integrated into the U.S.-made drone and others more easily. TWZ approached Kratos for more details on what the changes would involve, as well as the broader aims of the program, and was told that the new partnership aimed to achieve 'an affordable, low-risk, high-capability Collaborative Combat Aircraft optimized for German/European defense applications.'
Eric DeMarco, CEO of Kratos, described the new version of the Valkyrie as being 'tuned' for the European mission, suggesting that it will feature specific modifications for operators in the region.
In a statement, Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defense and Space, doesn't refer explicitly to a German plan involving the XQ-58A, but notes that 'our customers have expressed an urgent demand for both attritable and non-attritable Collaborative Combat Aircraft.' By teaming up with Kratos, Airbus will be able to 'deliver crucial capabilities for our warfighters in Europe before the end of the decade.'
Airbus says that the plan is for the 'Europeanized' drone to be ready for the Luftwaffe by 2029. At this stage, it's not clear if the German Ministry of Defense has a specific requirement to buy the XQ-58A, but there are certainly signs that it wants to introduce a similar platform in the future.
It should also be recalled that Kratos has, in the past, said that it was developing two new drone designs, Apollo and Athena, with a particular focus on collaborative operations with other crewed and uncrewed aircraft, and an eye toward sales in Europe. The modular Apollo and Athena designs are smaller than the XQ-58A and could be configured to carry weapons, electronic warfare systems, or additional sensors, as you can read about here. However, Kratos told TWZ that the new partnership with Airbus is not related to Apollo and Athena.
Meanwhile, last summer, Airbus unveiled a stealthy CCA-like concept of its own, known as Wingman. At the time, Schoellhorn said that the Luftwaffe had 'expressed a clear need' for a drone that would be able to operate in conjunction with crewed fighters before the arrival in service of the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS). The FCAS program is aiming for service entry in the 2040s, with a crewed New Generation Fighter (NGF) as its centerpiece. Schoellhorn noted that the Wingman would be expected to enter service in the 2030s timeframe.
Somewhat larger than the XQ-58A, the Wingman currently exists only as a concept aircraft, while the Valkyrie has been flying since 2019.
Potentially, Germany might be looking to acquire the XQ-58A as an interim platform pending the arrival of the Wingman, although the company's plans suggest it will be looking to find a market for the 'Europeanized' drone with NATO members across the continent.
Germany, for its part, would certainly seem to be a candidate for a CCA-type drone, especially as an uncrewed companion that it wants to have work alongside its forthcoming Eurofighter EK electronic warfare jets. However, an Airbus official told Breaking Defense that, at this point, the XQ-58A is not being pitched for this Electronic Combat Wingman program. That is somewhat surprising, especially considering the fact that the Valkyrie has previously been tested in an electronic warfare capacity, and an EW version of the drone exists as a program of record for the U.S. Marine Corps.
Regardless, the potential of a drone of this kind could also be harnessed by other German Eurofighters, which undertake a range of air defense and air-to-ground missions, as well as the F-35A stealth jets it also has on order. Noteworthy is the fact that the F-35 is slated to work together with CCAs, as well, with the combination of the stealth jet and complementary drones being a key facet of the planned future U.S. Air Force force posture.
Airbus describes the XQ-58A as a runway-independent rail-launched drone, which could also be especially interesting for European air forces, allowing them to conduct dispersed operations and to forward-launch the drones close to NATO's eastern border. The drones can even be launched from forward locations out of shipping containers, to maximize range and loiter time, with crewed fighters joining up with them from deeper, more protected bases.
At the same time, it remains possible that the new version of the drone might at least be offered with built-in landing gear. Kratos first announced that a version of the drone with tricycle-type wheeled landing gear was in the works last year, and this might present certain advantages over the original runway-independent design. Meanwhile, there also exists the ability to launch the Valkyrie from a wheeled launch trolley, if required.
It's notable that, before the Wingman concept, Airbus worked on other advanced uncrewed aircraft programs. Chief among these is the Barracuda, work on which began in 2003, initially as a 'black program.'
After six test campaigns, the Barracuda — which has a striking resemblance to the XQ-58A — was retired. Experience and data from the drone have been fed into FCAS, which is also planned to include interaction of crewed and uncrewed aircraft, with 'remote carrier' drones of different sizes being among the latter.
Whatever Germany's plans for the Valkyrie, the partnership with Airbus appears very well timed to bring a relatively proven 'loyal wingman'-type drone to the European market. With increasing tensions between NATO and Russia, air forces are paying much more attention to more affordable ways of usefully boosting combat mass.
This could be a real boost for the XQ-58A, especially since it was absent from the first tranche of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. Ultimately, General Atomics and Anduril were selected to build flying prototypes of their designs, now designated YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively, under CCA's Increment 1, but the Valkyrie could well still have a chance for follow-on tranches.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps has been testing the Valkyrie extensively and, earlier this year, Kratos confirmed that it was close to final configurations of the drone for the service. It's unclear what the Marine Corps variants will be, but Kratos has previously said it was working on at least five XQ-58 variants, including one that was optimized for electronic attack.
For many years, defense spending across Europe — and not just in Germany — saw air forces reduced in size and lose some of their previous capabilities. A renewed emphasis on defense and the potential of uncrewed assets could open significant new markets for the XQ-58A, especially as air forces look for lower-cost ways of rebuilding combat mass.
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