Airbus races to equip Valkyrie drones with AI for German Air Force by 2029

Airbus is working at full throttle to deliver an operational Uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (UCCA) system to the German Air Force by 2029. The company is preparing the first two Valkyries it acquired from Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., for their maiden flight. They are scheduled to fly later this year.

Airbus is equipping the UCCAs with the Multiplatform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure (MARS) system. MARS also contains an AI-supported software brain called MindShare, which not only replaces the missing pilot but also coordinates entire mission groups, distributed across many manned and uncrewed platforms.

“By combining the Kratos Valkyrie with our MARS mission system, we are offering the German customer exactly what Germany and Europe urgently need in the current geopolitical situation: a proven flying uncrewed combat aircraft with a sovereign European mission system that does not have to be developed from scratch in a time-consuming and costly manner,” said Marco Gumbrecht, head of Key Account Germany at Airbus Defence and Space. “Our objective is to deliver credible combat capability in time of relevance, while assuring key sovereign aspects. And we are confident that we can do this at a very affordable price - which is a key driver for UCCAs.”

Technical data

The Kratos Valkyrie has a length of 9.1 meters, a wingspan of 8.2 m, and a range of over 5,000 kilometers. The maximum take-off weight is around three tons. It can fly at an altitude of up to 45,000 feet. The maiden flight of the Valkyrie took place in the United States in 2019, and additional aircraft have been flying regularly since then. The maiden flight of the Airbus variant is scheduled later this year.

Steve Fendley, president of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, said, “By taking the flight-proven and in-production Valkyrie and integrating the Airbus MARS mission system, the Airbus-missionized Valkyrie UCCA is a multi-mission, affordable system that can operate independently, in teams of UAS, or in Manned-Unmanned-Teaming operations.

Fully autonomous or commanded by a Eurofighter jet, the Valkyrie will be able to take on sensitive mission tasks that would pose too great a danger to the pilot. The UCCA can service kinetic and non-kinetic mission sets in several roles. For the German Air Force, Airbus and Kratos are initially focusing on a specific role to deliver credible combat air power on time and on target.