Airbus Takes the U740 Valkyrie into European Skies

By Garth Calitz

A rocket-assisted combat drone, artificial intelligence and an ambitious 2029 operational deadline are bringing Europe closer to a new era of air warfare, in which uncrewed aircraft could fly alongside conventional fighters, undertake high-risk missions and provide additional combat capability without placing another pilot in harm’s way.

The future of air combat is increasingly looking like a team effort in which one pilot may command several aircraft, some of which will not have anybody sitting inside them. Airbus has taken another step towards that future, completing the first European flight of its U740 Valkyrie uncrewed combat aircraft on 12 October 2026.

Developed in partnership with American defence company Kratos Defence & Security Solutions, the U740 is intended to provide Germany and other European air forces with an operational uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) capability by 2029. The concept is straightforward enough: combine a relatively affordable combat drone with existing crewed fighters, allowing the unmanned aircraft to undertake dangerous missions while extending the reach and survivability of the aircraft carrying human pilots.

It is an ambitious objective, particularly when the deadline is less than three years away, and the most important element of the European system still has to complete its flight-testing programme.

The U740 is based on Kratos' XQ-58A Valkyrie, an uncrewed aircraft that first flew in the United States in 2019. Rather than developing an entirely new airframe from scratch, Airbus is adapting the established platform to meet European operational requirements.

The aircraft completed its European maiden flight at an undisclosed test facility in northern Europe. According to Airbus, the flight achieved its objectives, including a rocket-assisted take-off independent of a conventional runway, manoeuvres at different altitudes, speeds of up to Mach 0.8 and in-flight mission adjustments.

Those are meaningful milestones, but they should not be confused with the completion of a combat-ready system. The flight demonstrated the aircraft's progress in European testing; the integration of its mission-management technology remains a critical next step.

The U740 measures 9.1 metres in length, has an 8.2-metre wingspan and a maximum take-off weight of approximately three tonnes. Airbus quotes a range exceeding 5,000 kilometres and a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The design includes an internal weapons bay and external payload stations beneath the wings.

The combination of range, payload capacity and rocket-assisted launch could give military planners considerable flexibility, particularly where conventional airfields are vulnerable or unavailable. The aircraft is also intended to operate alongside crewed fighters such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The more strategically important part of the programme is Airbus' Multi-platform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure, or MARS, mission system. Airbus intends MARS to provide European control over mission software, applications, data and system hardware. Its artificial-intelligence-supported architecture is designed to execute missions autonomously and coordinate groups of uncrewed aircraft, while allowing human operators to retain oversight of critical decisions.

The distinction matters. Europe is not merely looking to acquire another drone; it wants control over the software and mission architecture that determine how the aircraft operates.

Using an American-developed airframe offers a shortcut through some of the lengthy development work associated with a completely new aircraft. However, genuine technological sovereignty is more complicated than changing the software. Long-term access to components, modification rights, system integration and support arrangements will also influence how independently European operators can use the platform.

Reuters reported that the next flight, planned for early 2027, is expected to include the MARS system, with integration trials involving Eurofighter aircraft scheduled later that year. Those milestones will be considerably more revealing than the initial flight alone.

Modern air forces face a difficult equation. Advanced crewed fighters are increasingly expensive, sophisticated and demanding to operate. Sending them into heavily defended airspace creates obvious risks, particularly when losing a single aircraft also means losing a highly trained pilot.

Collaborative combat aircraft offer another option. Uncrewed platforms could undertake reconnaissance, electronic warfare, target identification and, where equipped and authorised, strike missions. They could also complicate an adversary's defensive calculations by presenting multiple threats rather than a single crewed aircraft.

Airbus describes this approach as providing affordable combat mass. The objective is to field enough capable aircraft to increase operational options without purchasing every capability in the form of an expensive crewed fighter. Affordable, of course, is a relative term. Acquisition prices are only part of the equation. Operators must also pay for weapons, communications, software development, maintenance, training, testing and the infrastructure required to coordinate crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

Autonomy does not eliminate the need for people. It changes where those people work and what they are responsible for. Nor does artificial intelligence automatically make a combat aircraft more intelligent than its designers intended. Reliable communications, resistance to electronic warfare, identification of legitimate targets and appropriate human oversight remain essential challenges. An autonomous aircraft that performs beautifully in a controlled demonstration must still prove itself in the far less accommodating environment of modern combat.

Airbus intends the Valkyrie to work with existing combat aircraft, with the Eurofighter potentially acting as a command aircraft. The concept would allow a pilot to direct uncrewed platforms towards tasks that might otherwise expose the crewed fighter to unacceptable risks. This could extend sensor coverage, increase the number of available weapons platforms and complicate enemy air-defence planning. It also introduces new demands on cockpit interfaces, communications, mission planning and pilot workload.

The objective is not necessarily to remove the pilot from the battlefield. It is to make the pilot more effective by providing additional aircraft that can carry out assigned tasks. Airbus is also pursuing the larger U760 Ravenstorm as part of its longer-term collaborative combat aircraft ambitions, indicating that the Valkyrie is intended to be one step in a broader family of uncrewed combat systems.

Airbus and Kratos have demonstrated that the Valkyrie can fly in Europe and that the programme is moving towards its intended operational goal. The next stage must establish whether the European mission system can deliver the autonomy, interoperability and operational reliability that the concept requires. The 2029 target leaves little room for complacency. Software integration, weapons qualification, communications testing, operational doctrine and training all take time, even when the basic airframe already exists.

The pilot's new wingman is therefore no longer just a futuristic concept. But it is not yet a fully operational combat capability either. For now, the Valkyrie has proved it can get off the ground. The harder test will be demonstrating that it can think, communicate and fight as part of a coordinated combat force. And, as any experienced pilot will tell you, getting airborne is generally the easy part. It is everything that follows that makes aviation interesting.