The U.S. XQ-58A Valkyrie successfully launched a mini-drone in a test. (taken from the U.S. Department of Defense website)
The U.S. Air Force announced on May 5 that the developing XQ-58A Valkyrie drone successfully released a smaller drone, completing a special experiment of “drone releasing drone”, which shocked the Chinese Communist Party and called out The news alarmed the Chinese Communist Party, which called for “vigilance”.
On April 5, Defense News Weekly reported that an XQ-58A Valkyrie drone conducted a test on March 26, opening its bomb bay and dropping a small ALTIUS-600 drone while flying over the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.
This was the sixth time the Valkyrie drone has conducted a flight test at Yuma Proving Ground, and the first time it opened its bomb bay and dropped an ALTIUS-600 drone carried in a barrel launcher during a test flight, according to the report.
With a total weight of 12.2 kg, the ALTIUS-600 UAV has a flight endurance of 4 hours and can carry an additional 2.7 kg load, including cameras, small signals intelligence systems and even anti-personnel warheads, in addition to flight equipment.
The ALTIUS-600 can also be launched from a variety of different military platforms (previously launched by Army Blackhawk helicopters) to perform counter-drone, electronic warfare, signals intelligence surveillance, and situational awareness missions.
The news drew the attention of the Chinese Communist Party’s media, which wrote an article calling for “vigilance,” and Chinese military experts even said that “the technology of using cheap UAVs to launch cheaper micro-drones, once mature and widely used on the battlefield, may bring important changes to the future shape of warfare. “.
After the ALTIUS-600 UAV is launched, each airfoil and propeller will automatically deploy and begin flying to carry out its mission. (Taken from the U.S. Department of Defense website)
The ALTIUS-600 mini-UAV is a small tube-launched autonomous UAV designed and built by Area-I, with wings that fold before launch and only extend after launch.
The XQ-58A Valkyrie UAV is a low-cost, attrition-prone UAV developed by Kratos in cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, and will make its first flight in March 2019. AFRL has been included in the Skyborg program option to create an artificial intelligence (AI) system that can control UAVs for autonomous flight, takeoff and landing, and assist pilots in combat.
The U.S. Air Force said the XQ-58A is classified as “attritable” (attritable) equipment, defined in the military as “reusable equipment, but inexpensive and able to withstand certain combat losses.
The U.S. XQ-58A Valkyrie drone will make its first flight in March 2019. (From the U.S. Department of Defense website)
The U.S. Air Force is experimenting with the Skyborg program, which will allow XQ-58A Valkyrie UAVs to serve as communication nodes for F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, thereby enhancing the combat capabilities of both manned and unmanned aircraft. The XQ-58A “Valkyrie” drones will serve as communication nodes for the F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, thereby enhancing the combat capabilities of both manned and unmanned aircraft.
The compact ALTIUS-600 can be used in combat operations to form scaled-up UAV swarms, and the combination of the two can perform diverse missions and help shape the future of air combat.
The U.S. military is currently actively testing the ALTIUS-600 UAV to advance this small UAV for multi-platform air-launched deployments. The U.S. military used the MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAV last year to launch the small UAV in the air and bring it into tactical deployment.
The air launch, conducted last October as part of its air-launch effectiveness demonstration, was part of the same year’s Project Convergence military exercise. And just last week, military contractor Anduril Technologies announced it will acquire Area-I, which developed the ALTIUS-600 small UAV.
According to Anduril Technologies’ plans, it will buy Area-I in its entirety and operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary in the future, continuing to use the Area-I brand.
Following the test flight, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory announced that the successful test flight of the ALTIUS-600 UAV demonstrated that the XQ-58A UAV is a high performance UAV that can afford to operate in the field. The results of the test were in line with expectations, indicating that the Valkyrie UAV’s range of application has been enhanced and that it successfully concluded a series of tests set up around this goal.
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