At a test facility in Northern Europe, the U740 Valkyrie uncrewed combat aircraft has made its first flight on the continent. Airbus said in an Oct. 12, 2026 release that the aircraft, developed with Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, launched without a runway using a rocket-assisted takeoff and flew maneuvers at various altitudes at speeds up to Mach 0.8. The two companies say they remain on track to deliver a combat-ready Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) by 2029.
The release is datelined Ottobrunn/Taufkirchen, Germany. It does not give the date of the flight, its duration or the name of the test site, and describes the location only as Northern Europe.
Airbus set out the result in its release on the maiden European flight, which says the companies “successfully completed the first flight of the ‘U740-Valkyrie’ in Europe.” According to Airbus, the flight “achieved all objectives, including a runway independent rocket-assisted take-off,” along with maneuvers up to Mach 0.8 and in-flight mission adjustments.
An American airframe with a European mission system
The U740 is built on an existing Kratos design. When Airbus and Kratos first announced their partnership, in a July 16, 2025 Airbus release, Airbus said the German offering would be “based on the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie,” which it described as “a flight-proven UCCA (uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft)” and a “low observable, rail-launched drone.” That release set the goal of a system “combat ready for the German Air Force by 2029.”
The division of labor is the core of the pitch. Kratos supplies the airframe; Airbus supplies the mission system. The Oct. 12 release quotes Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, describing the combination of “Kratos’ proven airframe as a ‘program of record'” with Airbus’s own mission system. He said the result means “we are able to offer a robust, sovereign, affordable, and combat-ready CCA system by the end of the decade.”
Schoellhorn framed the requirement in terms of numbers. “Air forces require affordable combat mass,” he said in the release, citing a “complex and contested threat environment,” and added that the Valkyrie would supplement crewed jets “such as the Eurofighter with extended range, firepower, and survivability.”
Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos, said in the same release that “this flight was an amazing success.”
What Airbus says the aircraft can do
The release lists the aircraft’s figures as company specifications, not test results from this flight:
- Length of 9.1 meters and wingspan of 8.2 meters
- Maximum takeoff weight of approximately three tonnes
- Range exceeding 5,000 kilometers
- Service ceiling of 45,000 feet
- An internal weapons bay and external payload stations under the wings
Of those, the European flight demonstrated the runway-independent launch and speeds up to Mach 0.8, per Airbus. The release does not say the aircraft reached its ceiling or range on this sortie, and it does not describe any weapons carriage during the test.
MARS comes next
The next stage, according to Airbus, is to fly the aircraft with its own mission software. Later flight tests will integrate Airbus’s MARS mission system, short for Multi-platform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure. The release says MARS “enables national German or European sovereignty” over the aircraft’s operational use, covering software, mission applications, data and hardware.
Airbus also addressed control. The release says “a human remains on the loop” so that critical decisions meet rules of engagement and legal and ethical standards, and that the aircraft can operate under the command of crewed fighters such as the Eurofighter.
The Oct. 12 release does not announce a contract with Germany or any other European air force. What is on the record is one completed European flight, a planned MARS integration campaign, and the companies’ stated target of a combat-ready CCA by 2029.
Top image: An XQ-58A Valkyrie, the Kratos aircraft behind the European U740 variant, launching with rocket assist at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, on Dec. 9, 2020. Image Credit: Staff Sgt. Joshua King, U.S. Air Force — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons