Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie

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Josh_TN said:
That carriage rolling at a hundred miles an hour after separation must create a whole new type of Trolly Problem…
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It's basically like a refused take-off at that point, but with only the weight of the trolley to be stopped. Seems manageable.
 
Interesting that they now admit the original trailer couldn´t take up the full-up takeoff load.

But where did I hear that before? ;)
 
TomcatViP said:
Interesting that they now admit the original trailer couldn´t take up the full-up takeoff load.

But where did I hear that before? ;)
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Where did they say that? The old trailer is for transport, with launch done with RATO and a zero-length rail. The KTLS has nothing to do with weight.
 
TomS said:
The point of that statement is that both RATO and KTLS allow them to dispense with the weight of built-in landing gear.
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I reckon the semantic used make it very debatable. See how The War Zone is leaning on this in the link above:
So, the use of a conventional runway means the XQ-58 can get aloft with a higher gross weight, which can equate to more weapons, sensors, and fuel. Kratos has told The War Zone that the increase “is in the 10s of % for both fuel and payload capacity” and “enables quite an advantage for amount of payload and range / endurance of the system.” The use of the aircraft is also not limited to rocket boosters on-hand at any given location.
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Honestly, I'd say the biggest advantage is not HAVING to have launch boosters. Even if it didn't give you any bonus fuel and payload.

Because now you can launch one of those from inside interdicted airspace a second time.
 
TomcatViP said:
I reckon the semantic used make it very debatable. See how The War Zone is leaning on this in the link above:
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So yes, KTDL offers a bit more MTOW than RATO. But I thought you were originally saying the trailer used to transport the XQ-58 was too small. That's not really related to the RATO vs trolley launch question.
 
Not exactly. I said that I doubted the trailer was rated for the adverted vehicle MGTOW. I encouraged the reader to focus on the axels and tires rating.
 
I was thinking about a UAV drone bomber, separate from the CCA program, just because such a platform would not have to have nearly the performance or sophistication of a cooperative A2A drone. It occurs to me that XQ-58 has some rather ideal qualities for that purpose - it’s lower thrust : weight but longer ranged, and it already has a bomb bay. I was thinking if it were to use a payload of micro PGMs that it would be very capable of hitting multiple soft targets. The bomb bay looks to be >6 feet, which should allow multiple 3’ long munitions like GBU-44 Viper Strike or ALTIUS-600. Depending on bomb bay width, 4-8 might be carried. If you could incorporate the tiny NG Hatchet bomb, you might carry several dozen bomblets. The wing stations should be just big enough to carry a pair of MALD decoys to aid in penetrating AD. In the context of a Sino-American war, these might launch from Okinawa with a 1000 mi+ combat radius, runway independence, and a bomb load that would still be huge threat to TELs, radars, and exposed aircraft. Have there been any studies or program efforts in this direction? It seems like an very off the shelf way of creating an asymmetrical threat.
 
Forest Green said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1943366138026414308
View: https://x.com/aircombatcmd/status/1943366138026414308
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Defense Updates has just put out a video concerning this experiment:


A key development has taken place in the domain of manned-unmanned collaboration for aerial combat.In a landmark demonstration hailed as “a major leap in human-machine teaming,” the U.S. Air Force successfully tested the integration of autonomous collaborative platforms (ACPs) with crewed fighter jets. During the exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, pilots aboard an F-16C Fighting Falcon and an F-15E Strike Eagle each commanded two XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned aircraft in a coordinated air combat training scenario.​
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In this video, Defense Updates analyzes how the XQ-58A Valkyrie, controlled from a piloted fighter, can be a force multiplier?
#defenseupdates #XQ58AValkyrie #usmilitary
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Chapters:
0:00 TITLE
00:11 INTRODUCTION
01:00 SPONSORSHIP - NordVPN
01:34 THE TEST
04:00 VALKYRIE
06:34 ANALYSIS
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Josh_TN said:
It occurs to me that XQ-58 has some rather ideal qualities for that purpose
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It occurs to me that XQ-58 is not good for air superiority, being blind and slow. XQ-58 is also not designed like other ISR aircraft, with ISR platforms generally wanting immense endurance and VLO and not low vehicle cost, since sensors are expensive.

So in my mind XQ-58 would be a bomber to begin with. I mean it has a bomb bay and not a modular nose cone like MQ-28 that one would want to put sensors for.
 
shin_getter said:
It occurs to me that XQ-58 is not good for air superiority, being blind and slow. XQ-58 is also not designed like other ISR aircraft, with ISR platforms generally wanting immense endurance and VLO and not low vehicle cost, since sensors are expensive.

So in my mind XQ-58 would be a bomber to begin with. I mean it has a bomb bay and not a modular nose cone like MQ-28 that one would want to put sensors for.
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It's also got really minimal capacity, only ~600lbs. A pair of SDBs.
 
shin_getter said:
It occurs to me that XQ-58 is not good for air superiority, being blind and slow. XQ-58 is also not designed like other ISR aircraft, with ISR platforms generally wanting immense endurance and VLO and not low vehicle cost, since sensors are expensive.

So in my mind XQ-58 would be a bomber to begin with. I mean it has a bomb bay and not a modular nose cone like MQ-28 that one would want to put sensors for.
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Current versions lack landing gear or high subsonic performance (Mach 9-9.5), and those appear to be program requirements. Also Kendal I think once indicated CCA needed a cruise speed equal to F-35, which makes sense. But they have the advantage of being available since ‘21 for testing. The USMC is thinking of using them as EW craft.

Future versions, or perhaps new designs, will compete for CCA but the baseline XQ-58 likely would only be considered for other, more disposable roles..
 

XQ-58 Valkyrie Heading To European Market With Kratos-Airbus Team-Up​

www.twz.com

XQ-58 Valkyrie Heading To European Market With Kratos-Airbus Team-Up

Harnessing a new Airbus-developed mission system, the stealthy Valkyrie drone will be offered to Germany, but there is big potential for sales across Europe. Harnessing a new Airbus-developed mission system, the drone will be pitched to Germany, but there is considerable potential for further...
www.twz.com www.twz.com
 
As a reminder:
“Since 2013, a key element of Kratos has been for Kratos to invest our own R&D [research and development], NRE [non-recurring engineering], and capital in order to move fast and rapidly design, engineer, and field affordable relevant systems for the warfighter, which is what we are doing with Kratos Furies Family of Hypersonic Systems[...].
“Similar to Kratos Erinyes and Dark Fury Hypersonic Flyers, this new Kratos funded Hypersonic Drone initiative, included in Kratos Furies Family of Hypersonic Systems, is expected to be orders of magnitude less costly than any other hypersonic system or concept in existence today.”

Erinyes and Dark Fury are both unpowered hypersonic boost-glide vehicles designed to be launched with the help of a booster rocket.
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www.twz.com

Kratos Has A Hypersonic Drone In The Works

Kratos says low cost is a central focus of its newly disclosed high-speed drone program.
www.twz.com www.twz.com
 

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