Drone maker and defense contractor Kratos Defense and Security Solutions as won a nearly $18 million Air Force and it means work at the company’s Oklahoma City manufacturing plant.
The $17,776,055 award is from the Air Force Research Laboratory for work in the government’s Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology including efforts related to Kratos’ XQ-58A Valkyrie.
“Our work will continue evolving the capability set and further substantiate the viability and utility of these emerging unmanned technologies,” said Steve Fendley, President of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division.
The XQ-58 Valkyrie program is an experimental stealthy unmanned combat aerial vehicle designed and built by Kratos just for the Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator program.
It was initially designated XQ-222. The Valkyrie successfully completed its first flight on 5 March 2019 at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.
“Kratos has four affordable, reusable, expendable, or attritable drones flying which we can discuss, including Valkyrie, Mako, Gremlins (under Prime Contractor Dynetics), and Air Wolf, each of which is made in America and, we believe, provides Kratos an industry leading position in a large, new opportunity area,” added Eric Demarco, President and CEO of Kratos.
