US Marine Corps completes second XQ-58A Valkyrie flight test

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has successfully completed its second test flight with the XQ-58A Valkyrieloyal wingmen.

The XQ-58A will provide the USMC with a testbed platform for developing technologies and new concepts in support of the Marine Air Ground Task Force, such as autonomous flight and crewed-uncrewed teaming. The USMC has ordered two units, which were delivered in March 2023 and first flew in October 2023.

This successful test flight also served as a milestone in implementing Project Eagle, the USMC’s aviation modernisation strategy, the service said. Valkyrie and other Project Eagle research and experimentation platforms will inform capabilities needed in conflicts beyond 2040.

“The future battlespace demands new aviation platforms that embrace the austere environment and bring the fight to the enemy at a place of our choosing,” said Lt Col Bradley Buick, future capabilities officer for the USMC Cunningham Group.

Kratos has originally designed the XQ-58A for the United States Air Force (USAF) Low-Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator programme under the USAF Research Laboratory's Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) project portfolio.