The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator, built by
California-based Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, flew for the first time over
Yuma, Arizona on March 5, 2019, the Air Force Research Laboratory at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio announced.
The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator carried out its second flight
at the US Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona, on June 11. Developed by the
Air Force Research Laboratory and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, the
low-cost demonstrator is being developed as part of the Low Cost Attritable
Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) program, which is intended to break the `escalating
cost trajectory of tactically relevant aircraft’.
The XQ-58 Valkyrie on June 11, 2019 took off for its second
test flight over Yuma, Arizona. The 29-feet-long, jet-powered drone
“successfully completed all test objectives during a 71-minute flight,” the Air
Force Research Laboratory announced.
The Valkyrie’s first flight took place in March 2019. The
Air Force and California drone-maker Kratos plan to conduct five test sorties
during this phase of the XQ-58’s development.
The Valkyrie is part of a wider Air Force effort to acquire
fast, stealthy, armed drones that can fly and fight alongside manned fighters.
While the Valkyrie program develops one type of wingman
drone, the broader Skyborg program is working on the hardware and software for
integrating manned and unmanned fighters.
A new version of the Air Force’s F-35A stealth fighter, as
well as the heavily upgraded version of the F-15 that the flying branch hopes
to acquire, both could function as flight leads for the service’s wingman
drones.
The Air Force is in discussions with Boeing and Lockheed
respectively to modify their F-15EX and F-35A Block 4 fighters to accommodate
the datalinks and processors from the Skyborg effort.
The Air Force eventually will fold the subsonic XQ-58 into
the Skyborg program. The Air Force plans to test wingman drones in 2019 and
2020 “with the hope of having an aircraft ready by 2023”. For example, take a
typical four-aircraft formation and replace it with an F-15EX and three
Valkyries.
Pilots and crew in manned planes and controllers on the
ground both could direct the wingman drones. But the unmanned aerial vehicles
themselves could end up being highly autonomous.
According to Kratos, the XQ-58’s capability “ranges from the low side of semi-autonomous (operator directed, autopilot stabilized) to the side of semi-autonomous (waypoint nav). The system includes standard interfaces to enable full autonomy capabilities.” Will Roper, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in a release.
“We can take risk with some systems to keep others safer,”
Roper said. “We can separate the sensor and the shooter. Right now they’re
collocated on a single platform with a person in it. In the future, we can separate
them out, put sensors ahead of shooters, put our manned systems behind the
unmanned. There’s a whole playbook.”
The U.S. Air Force in early March 2019 revealed a prototype
for stealthy wingman drone that could accompany manned warplanes into combat.
The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator, built by California-based
Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems, flew for the first time over Yuma, Arizona on
March 5, 2019, the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force
Base in Ohio announced.
The XQ-58’s first flight signals an expansion of international
efforts to develop unmanned aerial vehicles that can fly and fight in mixed
formations with traditional, manned warplanes.
Boeing’s Australian subsidiary on Feb. 27, 2019 unveiled its
so-called “Airpower Teaming System,” a 38-foot-long, jet-powered
drone that Boeing said could carry weapons and sensors and fly as far as 2,000
miles—all while being more affordable than a $100-million manned jet.
Boeing developed the new drone in cooperation with the
Australian military. After further development, the Royal Australian Air Force
could acquire the UAV to quickly and cheaply add firepower to its roughly
100-strong fighter fleet and six E-7 radar planes.
“The Boeing Airpower Teaming System is designed to team
with a wide range of existing military aircraft from fighters to commercial
derivative aircraft,” said Ashlee Erwin, a Boeing spokesperson.
“The idea of a robot wingman is that it can keep pace
with manned planes, but be tasked out for parts of the mission that you
wouldn’t send a human teammate to do,” Peter W. Singer, author of Wired
for War said.
Beside Australia, China and Japan also are working on
wingman drones. A mock-up or prototype of China’s 30-feet-long Dark Sword drone
first appeared in public in an undated photo that circulated on-line in
mid-2018.
Japan revealed its own “Combat Support Unmanned
Aircraft” wingman drone concept in a technology roadmap that Aviation Week
first published in late 2016.
Kratos’s 28-feet-long XQ-58 is similar to the Boeing
Airpower Teaming System UAV in size, shape and concept. AFRL and Kratos are
developing the Valkyrie drone under the auspices of the Low-Cost Attritable
Aircraft Technology program.
The XQ-58 program aims to “break the escalating cost
trajectory of tactically-relevant aircraft,” AFRL stated. “The objectives of
the LCAAT initiative include designing and building UAS faster by developing
better design tools and maturing and leveraging commercial manufacturing
processes to reduce build time and cost.”
The “runway-independent” — that is, catapult-launched —
Valkyrie “behaved as expected and completed 76 minutes of flight time” on its
first sortie, AFRL stated. “The time to first flight took a little over 2.5
years from contract award. The XQ-58A has a total of five planned test flights
in two phases with objectives that include evaluating system functionality,
aerodynamic performance and launch and recovery systems.”
The implications are huge for U.S. air power. “If you
team up a bunch of these aircraft with an F-35 or an F-22 or some of our
surveillance assets, you’d basically be able to cover more space at a lower
cost point,” Bill Baron, manager of the LCAA project, said at a 2017 conference.
Dan Ward, a former U.S. Air Force officer who has written
several books about weapons-development, explained all the ways the Pentagon
could botch the development of a potentially important new class of drone.
“The most likely way to mess this up is in the
beginning of the project,” commentd Ward. “If the Pentagon launches a
big new program with a start-from-scratch, single-step-to-capability program
plan and adopts the usual spare-no-expense, take-your-time mindset … it’ll end
up taking longer, costing more and doing less than promised.”
“Same thing if they try to pack too much into the
system and allow complexity to get out of control,” Ward added. The Air
Force should experiment with wingman drones, keep them cheap, keep them simple
and remind itself that it’s not the only country working on this kind of UAV.
Wingman drones are coming. And they could change aerial
warfare for any country that acquires them.
