The Air Force has awarded two contract options – worth $13.2 million and $7 million respectively – to Kratos and General Atomics for further advancement in the development of Skyborg Vanguard.

The options, exercised by the Fighters and Advanced Aircraft program executive office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, are for Kratos’ XQ-58A Valkyrie and for General Atomics’ MQ-20 Avenger.

These efforts will advance the integration of the Autonomous Core System along with continued operational experimentation thru fiscal year 2022.  The vehicles will demonstrate future warfighting capabilities through the teaming of manned and unmanned platforms at large force test events.  The test events will provide critical information and the necessary insight needed to shape a future program.
 
“These contract actions, while tactical in nature, are strategically important to this Vanguard as we continue to discover and learn how we will employ this advance technology in the fight,” said Brig. Gen. Dale White, the PEO for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft. The team has always been committed to transitioning Skyborg to a program of record, and we’ll be ready in 2023 as the Air Force prepares its fiscal year 2023 President’s Budget submission early next year.”

“Kratos XQ-58A has been flying since March of 2019, approximately 30 months after aircraft conception, and was designed specifically for these applications and the ability to support missions from ISR to Strike in manned-unmanned teaming scenarios or in unmanned only mission sets,” said Steve Fendley president of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division. “These capabilities are intended to substantially increase the effectiveness of our country’s military mission sets, while at the same time reducing risk to the exquisite assets and manned elements — saving resources and, most importantly, lives.”

The next operational exercise is slated to occur in the fall of 2021.