Airbus is preparing two uncrewed combat aircraft

icegreentea2 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

There are multiple interesting developments wrapped together here.

First, these are intended to be "loyal wingman". They'll be commanded (but not really remotely controlled) from manned fighters nearbyish. Presumably, the "shoot authorization" will be delegated down to the pilots.

Secondly, the actual unmanned platform (the Kratos Valkyrie) is also part of a program of record for the USMC (US Marine Corps) to act as a partner SEAD (suppression of air defence) vehicle.

Thirdly, the "MARS" system chattered about looks to be Airbus' open architecture /system of systems pitch that they were developing for FCAS (the European 6th generation fighter program). MARS and all pitches like it are about ways to make individual platforms as software defined as possible, and to get different platforms/instances to really data/function share as much as possible.

If this program goes well, it shows that Airbus' MARS has the flexibility and capability required to just... layer into/ontop of some random other vendor's hardware/software and then "just work". I think it would be major demonstration/validation of the work.

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twalichiewicz 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

This seems to be the generally agreed upon direction defense companies are going, but a couple architectural concerns come to mind regarding this "Manned-Unmanned-Teaming" approach:

- Even if the XQ-58 has a low radar cross section, a swarm of four drones flying in formation with a non-stealthy Eurofighter significantly increases the aggregate probability of detection. Unless these drones are performing active electronic countermeasures or "blinking" to spoof radar returns, they’re essentially a giant "here we are" sign for any modern radar. I wonder if they've compensated via the flight software to manage formation geometry to minimize the group's total observable signature?

- Anti-air systems will prioritize the command aircraft (the Eurofighter) immediately. If the C2 link is severed (kinetic kill, high-power jamming) what is the state-machine logic for the subordinates? Do they revert to a fail-passive (return to base) or -active (continue last assigned strike) mode? Without a human-in-the-loop, rules of engagement issues are abound. (I'm not even accounting for the fact that the drones probably rely on calculations from the command craft, so edge-computing will factor in as well.)

- They're calling these "attritable," but at $4M a pop plus the cost of the sensors, they aren't exactly disposable. Is the cost-per-kill for an adversary’s interceptor missile actually higher than the cost of the drone it's hitting?

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blobcode 23 minutes ago | parent [-]

(1) Aircraft rarely fly in anything close to formation in combat - large gaps are the norm (1-10 miles), and one would think that increased distance is something that could be exploited by an unmanned platform (able to take more risk, etc.)

(2) Remains to be seen.

(3) Individual Patriot missiles are around that price point, with S300/S400 anywhere from 500k-2M depending on capability. One would think that cost-per-kill would be favorable considering the increased capability granted.

	▲	twalichiewicz a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		At 10-mile intervals, you aren't just flying a plane; you're maintaining a high-bandwidth, low-latency mesh network in a contested electronic environment. If the command aircraft is 10 miles away and the enemy is jamming the link, the drone is going to be making split-second (potentially) lethal decisions without the pilot. You're right about them both costing about the same, so the real leverage only comes if these drones can stay out of the engagement envelope while sending cheaper submunitions (likely using something like these Ragnaroks (~$150k) https://www.kratosdefense.com/newsroom/kratos-unveils-revolu...) to do the actual baiting.

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d_silin 23 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In terms of military technology we now have aerial and naval drones clearly outperforming previous generation of ships and aircraft in "bang for buck".

Land warfare is next on the list: https://time.com/article/2026/03/09/ai-robots-soldiers-war/

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dom96 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is this the EU's version of the Shahed drones? or is it something different?

	▲	icegreentea2 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's completely different. Shaheds are low cost one way attack drones. They're basically just very cost efficient cruise missiles with fresh marketing (and to be fair, the cost efficiency is a true categorical difference). These drones are "helpers" for fighter jets. It's a type of role that is still in development (no one has an operational collaborative combat aircraft as far as I understand), both technically and in concept. But the basic idea is that you'll have drones that can somewhat keep up with your fighter jets and help it do stuff that might be too risky. Maybe fly ahead, or be the one with the active emissions or sensors or whatever. Or maybe it's just a way to increase the amount of ordnance/sensors you can fly per sortie / generate from a given amount of training/flight hours in a year.

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sourcegrift 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There's a funny term some cool kids use for them, "drone", I think? Personally I think it's too short to convey the full utility.

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chaostheory an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, I believe Kratos (who is doing this joint venture with Airbus) and AeroVironment are the current leaders in the space. Not sure what happens when Anduril goes public

	▲	icegreentea2 12 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I think the USA has ~3ish airframes/systems that are roughly in this category: * The Kratos Valkyrie with the USMC in a SEAD role * Anduril (YFQ-44) and General Atomics (YFQ-42) are battling it out for the USAF's CCA Increment 1 contract (we're apparently supposed to get a decision on that this year) - with Increment 2 probably getting spun up pretty soon * USN has the Boeing MQ-25 as an drone tanker... once that gets up the speed, I'm fairly certain it's going to morph into something strike capable Elsewhere, Boeing Australia's Ghost Bat seems to be doing well as well.

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unangst an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A modern V-2. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

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Mistletoe an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

"Begun, the Clone War has." -Yoda

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colechristensen an hour ago | parent [-]

The worry being that war will be a lot easier to stomach when none of the combatants are alive.

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dlt713705 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

But a robot war is an endless war. There will always be more robots to fight until the economy is completely exhausted.

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borski an hour ago | parent [-]

Not necessarily. If the factories that build the robots are taken out, for example. Someone (even a robot) still has to build them.

	▲	dlt713705 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		What if the factories are located in foreign countries and the belligerents are only buying off-the-shelf products ? Wars are always bad news and robot wars are very bad news. Many countries will fall into an endless war economy.

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esafak 23 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

None on the offensive side, perhaps.

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maximinus_thrax 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Good! Great to hear! EU needs to grow its domestic military industry, the French were right all along.

	▲	tomasphan an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They are reprogramming a US built drone to the German datalink equivalent with some AI sprinkled on top. Unfortunately far away from a real industry.
	▲	busterarm an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The EU already has the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 10th largest share of global arms exports. Losing the 8th place slot due to Brexit.

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markdown 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Airbus selling ai-operated strike drones.

FTFY

	▲	RobRivera 26 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		No you didnt