A check Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned fight aerial car deployed final week in a first-ever joint pressure knowledge hyperlink integration check throughout Emerald Flag 2024 final week.
The Marine Corps’ “Loyal Wingman” drone supplies focusing on knowledge to F-35Bs and different plane.
“The XQ-58A successfully demonstrated its capabilities as a ahead deployed sensing platform – offering vital risk focusing on knowledge to Marine Corps fifth-generation plane,” reads a Marine Corps press launch on the combination effort.
Procured by the service underneath the Penetrating Inexpensive Autonomous Collaborative Killer, or the Portfolio (PAACK-P) program, which is able to function an experimentation mattress for the Marine Air-Floor Process Pressure Unmanned Aerial System Expeditionary (MUX) Tactical Plane (TACAIR), the Marine Valkryie drones took flight for the primary time final 12 months. Successive flight exams occurred in February and September of this 12 months, with the latter appearing as preparation for the service’s knowledge hyperlink integration effort at Emerald Flag.
Beginning in 2020, the Air Pressure-led Emerald Flag collection of workout routines focuses on the joint integration of platforms throughout the companies in a multi-domain setting. The train’s actions are centered round Eglin Air Pressure Base, which hosts quite a few check and growth elements and a maritime testing vary. The train has additionally been the location of earlier pressure integration efforts by the Air Pressure, as seen within the 2022 iteration that included MQ-9A Reaper drones demonstrating their Satellite tv for pc Communication talents to conduct cross-country operations in assist of Agile Fight Employment.
Elgin has additionally hosted the Marines for prior testing efforts of Valkyrie underneath PAACK-P. The bottom hosted the service’s second flight check, which was known as a “key milestone in implementing Mission Eagle,” the notional identify for the Marine Corps yet-to-be-released 2024 aviation plan.
For the Marine Corps, this 12 months’s iteration of Emerald Flag centered across the Valkyrie as a sensor and its potential to transmit what it noticed again to each the service’s F-35B fifth-generation fighters and platforms from different companies. Col. Derek Brannon, the department head for the Cunningham Group throughout the workplace of the deputy commandant for aviation, highlighted the combination of Valkyrie with a four-ship of Lightning IIs and different plane through tactical knowledge hyperlinks and digital communication.
“The success of this flight check throughout Emerald Flag pushed the manned-unmanned teaming idea a step additional for the complete Joint Pressure,” Brannon mentioned.
Valkyrie’s Hyperlink-16 capabilities had been beforehand examined and verified through the drone’s third flight check, which additionally marked the primary time the Pentagon “managed an air car utilizing offboard expeditionary strategies.”
“Preliminary outcomes point out that the prototype met threshold necessities for autonomously exchanging related tactical data. These Hyperlink-16 capabilities considerably improve the Marine Air-Floor Process Pressure’s potential to conduct built-in and joint operations, contributing to the Marine Corps’ mission to discourage battle and, when obligatory, defeat enemies in complicated and evolving situations,” reads a information launch in regards to the September check.
With this newest check, the Kratos drone ought to solely have two extra deliberate exams underneath the unique PAACK-P necessities. The service’s exams goal to look at the viability of the “Loyal Wingman” platform to assist the F-35B by autonomous digital assist, AI-enabled help to fight air patrols and delivering or supporting long-range hearth missions. Kratos demonstrated the platform’s digital warfare functionality in April when one of many drones, at the side of two F-35Bs, performed an digital assault. The service didn’t publicly report this check regardless of it occurring earlier than the third flight check in September.
“This check flight marked the capstone occasion for the PAACK-P Fast Protection Experimentation Reserve undertaking and proved the tactical utility of uncrewed offboard sensing platforms,” mentioned Lt. Col. Bradley Buick, future capabilities officer for Cunningham Group.
