Airbus and its U.S. partner Kratos completed the first European test flight of the U740 Valkyrie uncrewed combat aircraft at a test facility in Northern Europe. The flight achieved all its objectives, including a rocket-assisted takeoff and maneuvers at speeds of up to Mach 0.8.
The test marks a step toward delivering a combat-ready collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) for Germany and other European armed forces by 2029. The program combines Kratos’s established airframe with Airbus’s MARS (Multi-platform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure) mission system. MARS is designed to give European operators sovereign control over the drone’s software, data and hardware.