flightglobal.com 3-9 March 2020 | Flight International | 31
UNMANNED SYSTEMS
Attritable aircraft❯❯Valkyrie’s long range would allow it to reach many Chinese targets from Japanese air basesUS Air Force Research LaboratoryRail and rocket-assisted take-off system means XQ-58A does not need a runway for launch
Kratos Defense & Security SolutionsRaytheon Peregrine or Lockheed Martin Cuda
air-to-air missiles.
The XQ-58A has a 3,000nm (5,560km)
range. If launched from Kadena air base on
Okinawa, Japan, it could reach into China’s
industrial heartland, with enough fuel left for
a return trip.
Aircraft range is a major concern for the
DoD, as the USAF’s Lockheed F-35A
Lightning II stealth fighter is limited to
1,200nm. The US Navy’s F-35C and US
Marine Corps’ F-35B have even shorter legs.
That means those services would have to risk
sending in an aircraft carrier or amphibious
assault ship close to China’s shore, within
range of Beijing’s missiles and combat aircraft.
AGILE ASSET
To get around some of its range problems, the
USAF is looking at pre-positioning weapons
trailers, fuel bladders and ready-to-eat rations
at various airstrips across the Pacific Ocean.
Such forward area refuelling points are intend-
ed to be used as pit stops for fighters as they fly
around the battlefield dodging enemy fire.
The service has practised this concept with
its Rapid Raptor exercises in recent years. It
seeks to quickly deploy four Lockheed F-22
fighters to any forward operating base in the
world within 24h using one Boeing C-17 stra-
tegic transport for support.
By repeatedly shuffling F-22s around the
region, the USAF hopes to get closer to targets
while making it difficult for an adversary such
as China to hit aircraft on the ground. “How
do we work to generate combat power from a
range of locations?” Brown says. “We have to
be light, lean and agile.”
Kratos points out that the containerised
XQ-58A could be quickly moved around the
region in a Lockheed C-130J tactical transport.
Setting up pre-positioned weapons would
require the USA to keep and expand alliances
in the Pacific area, however. Brown notes that
USAF Pacific Command is still surveying
airfields and land in the region as potential
bases. “There’s much more of a partnership
across the region with the United States, Aus-
tralia, Japan, Korea, for example, than what
[China] has,” says Brown. “So I think we have
a few more options than they do.”Should the USA strike an agreement to
place a containerised XQ-58A on another
country’s desert island, the drone could remain
inactive for a long time before being launched.
Kratos is still determining the exact length of
time the UAV could go without maintenance,
noting tricky issues with the effectiveness of
the fuel and jet engine lubrication.
“I can tell you something like a year isreadily achievable,” says Fendley. “Some-
thing like 10 years is more challenging, but
certainly not out of the realm.”
The company is building in a diagnostic
system into its Deployment Container Sys-
tem. “You can poll the system from outside
the container to determine whether or not the
system is healthy, and ready to be deployed
and operated,” says Fendley.JUST THE BEGINNING
Kratos is aiming to demonstrate the container-
ised concept as soon as possible, though if it
fails to receive flight permissions in time it
will conduct a mock launch. In that case, the
XQ-58A’s launch sequence would be demon-
strated right up to the point of take-off, and
then a nearby surrogate UAV would take off,
fly and be recovered to prove the concept.
The initial test will show the concept using
the XQ-58A, but Kratos stresses its other at-
tritable UAVs could also be containerised,
such as the smaller UTAP-22 Mako. The com-
pany says in some cases multiple UAVs could
be stored in one container.
Because of the XQ-58A’s size – at 9.1m (30ft)
long with an 8.2m wingspan – the aircraft will
be stored with its wings removed. Kratos de-
clines to say what dimensions of shipping con-
tainer would be used, but notes that it is one of
the standard ISO sizes. The container is likely
to cost one-eighth to one-tenth of the XQ-58A’s
unit cost, which is projected to be between $2
million and $3 million, depending on the
quantity ordered, says Kratos.
Concealing and launching the XQ-58A from
inside a submarine, as cruise and ballistic mis-
siles are, does not appear to be a short-term pros-
pect, however. “It might be tough for Valkyrie,”
says Fendley, noting the UAV’s large size. “It
would be very cool. Certainly from a physics
perspective, it’s possible. From a practicality
perspective, I think it might be pretty hard.”
Kratos also has other internally funded
launch systems in development, Fendley
says, but declines to reveal further details. ■“How do we work to generate
combat power from a range
of locations? We have to be
light, lean and agile”
General Charles Q Brown Jr
Commander, US Pacific Air Forces