USAF’s Skyborg unmanned drone advances to next development phase

Kratos and General Atomics have been awarded $13.2 million and $7 million respectively to develop the unmanned combat aircraft programme, Skyborg.

Skyborg is an autonomy-focused capability developed to enable USAF to operate low-cost, teamed aircraft.

“Kratos remains committed to supporting our partner’s, the US Air Force, objective of transitioning Skyborg to a program of record in 2023 with the XQ-58 Valkyrie,” Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco said."

Kratos received the funding for its XQ-58A Valkyrie, while General Atomics received funding for work on its MQ-20 Avenger

The service and Kratos have both said in statements that they remain committed to be ready for a Skyborg Vanguard Program of Record by 2023, which typically indicates the start of the engineering and manufacturing development phase.

The programme aims to enable airborne combat mass by building a transferable autonomy foundation for a family of layered, unmanned air vehicles.

AFRL will prototype a suite of autonomy and unmanned system technologies equipped with capabilities that can support a range of Air Force missions.

The latest funding will advance the integration of the Autonomous Core System (ACS) along with continued operational experimentation thru fiscal year 2022. 

The vehicles will demonstrate future warfighting capabilities through the teaming of manned and unmanned platforms at large force test events. The test events will provide critical information and the necessary insight needed to shape a future program.

The next operational exercise is slated to occur later this year.