Uncrewed aircraft manufacturer Kratos is officially confirming it will add landing gear to the company’s XQ-58 Valkyrie.
Speaking in Paris on 15 April, the company’s president of turbine technology Stacey Rock revealed an unspecified US customer is pursuing a conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) version of the Valkyrie, which currently does not feature wheeled landing gear.
“There are customers within the Department of Defense that want a conventional take-off and landing version of this aircraft,” says Rock, who spoke at an event organised by the Oklahoma state Department of Commerce ahead of the 2025 Paris air show.
Kratos assembles a number of its uncrewed aircraft in Oklahoma City, including the Valkyrie and MQM-178 FireJet target drone.
Chief executive Eric DeMarco had revealed the effort to develop a CTOL Valkyrie in 2024, and in April Kratos shared a rendering of the single-engined jet outfitted with landing gear.
However, the news from Paris indicates Kratos is still moving toward a US production contract after being passed over by the US Air Force for the first increment of so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Rock does not reveal which entity within the Pentagon is supporting the Valkyrie CTOL work, although the answer is most likely the US Marine Corps, which has an active test programme with the XQ-58.
The service is evaluating the Valkyrie for use in a number of roles, including suppression of enemy air defences, air-to-ground strike, and electronic warfare. Test exercises in October saw an XQ-58 successfully team with Lockheed Martin F-35B stealth fighters from the USMC, including in-flight communication via the Link 16 tactical data transmission system.
During that flight, the USMC says a networked XQ-58 acted as a forward-deployed sensing platform, “providing critical threat targeting data” to the F-35Bs, which could then evaluate and strike identified targets.
The US Air Force had previously flown a small number of Valkyries to test out concepts for uncrewed jet aircraft, but opted for designs by General Atomics and Anduril for its first run at developing an autonomous fighter.
Those designs – dubbed the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A – both feature wheeled landing gear and full CTOL capability.
By contrast, the XQ-58 uses a mobile rail system and external rocket boosters to launch and is recovered via a parachute. Kratos subsequently added a detachable wheeled trolley to the Valkyrie as an option for conventional take-off, but still returning to Earth via parachute.
The company has previously hinted at plans to integrate conventional landing gear with the small jet, but has only now officially confirmed the effort.
Without providing a specific timeline, Rock told the Oklahoma delegation that Kratos will have “fully demonstrated” the CTOL-capable Valkyrie before “the next time we’re together” – perhaps a reference to next year’s Farnborough international air show.
Rock was filling in for Kratos chief executive Eric DeMarco, who had been scheduled to speak at the event.
Without offering an explanation, Kratos says DeMarco is no longer attending the Paris air show.
A number of key industry players have withdrawn from the bi-annual event following the latest outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran in the Middle East on 12 June and the recent fatal crash of an Air India Boeing 787-8 in Ahmedabad.
