Airbus and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions have completed the first European flight of the U740-Valkyrie uncrewed combat aircraft, advancing a programme intended to deliver a combat-ready Collaborative Combat Aircraft for Germany and other European armed forces by 2029. Conducted at an undisclosed northern European test facility, the flight included rocket-assisted launch without a runway, manoeuvres at speeds up to Mach 0.8 and in-flight mission changes.
The aircraft is based on Kratos’ Valkyrie design and is intended to operate autonomously or under the direction of crewed fighters, including the Eurofighter, on high-risk missions. It can be rail-launched or use conventional runway take-off and landing, supporting dispersed operations.
The aircraft flown in Europe did not yet carry Airbus’ Multi-platform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure (MARS) mission system. MARS is intended to provide the European mission-management and control architecture, including sovereign software, mission applications, data and hardware. More advanced flight testing with the system is planned for the first quarter of 2027, with an initial Eurofighter teaming flight scheduled later that year.
Published specifications give the U740 a length of 30 feet, a 27-foot wingspan, an internal weapons bay, a maximum take-off weight above 6,000 pounds, a range exceeding 3,000 miles and a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The European flight demonstrated neither weapons carriage nor MARS-enabled autonomous mission control.