Kratos Conducts First Flight Of Thanatos UCAV

SIMI VALLEY, California—Kratos Defense and Security recently completed the first flight of its Thanatos stealthy uncrewed combat air vehicle, proving out the aircraft’s basic design as the company now focuses on flying a fully integrated system.

Steve Fendley, president of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division, tells Aviation Week the company hopes to learn more about the system as it evolves over the next 6-12 months. The company would not say when the first flight occurred, just that it was within the past several months.

Kratos unveiled the Thanatos design in November 2023 when company CEO Eric Demarco said in an earnings report that the company hoped to have a contract within a year. The design shows what appears to be a single-engine UCAV with two inlets and a single exhaust. The aircraft does not have a vertical tail and horizontal stabilizers, showing the company’s stealth approach.

Fendley said during a Dec. 7 interview at the Reagan National Defense Forum here: “The air vehicle for Thanatos is now effectively proven. We’re not trying to figure out does the airplane fly, we’re now trying to figure out does the integrated system tick the mission box.”

Kratos says it has strong interest in the upcoming increment of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. The first increment awards went to Anduril and General Atomics. Fendley says members of the CCA class of aircraft show the ability to augment what is being done with fifth-generation fighters and with offboarding systems from fourth-generation fighters to make them more survivable. For example, that would include a “high initial focus” on electronic warfare to provide greater standoff for fourth-generation fighters like Boeing F-15s and Lockheed Martin F-16s.

The company points to its ongoing work with both the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) and Air Force with its XQ-58 Valkyrie.

Fendley says the Valkyrie program is focused on “integrating different operational mission sets” in testing, including flights during a recent Emerald Flag exercise in October. During that mission, the XQ-58A passed targeting data to USMC Lockheed Martin F-35Bs to “close the kill chain” for the first time, he says.

The Marines have expressed interest in ultimately fielding a system like the XQ-58, he says.

One aspect that Kratos argues is operationally relevant is that the Valkyrie is runway independent, having been launched both on rockets and last year using a trolley.

“The DOD has come back and said runway independence is king,” he says. “It’s gone back and forth, back and forth, but now it’s pretty much in ink.”

That said, Kratos also is working on a conventional takeoff and landing system with retractable year, he says.

The company is designing its UCAV offerings with manufacturing feasibility in mind. For example, the company was asked what it would take to conduct a 1,000-unit production run for its Valkyrie. That study has shown propulsion likely would be a choke point, as Kratos would look to use both in-house designed engines and those from partners. The finding was the production run would take “not very long, [but] the engines were the constraint,” he says.

The company builds its own engines for targeting drones and other small uses, and in July announced a collaboration with GE Aerospace to develop scalable uses on systems including CCAs.

“We build to manufacture right from the start, and that’s a pretty good advantage for us, both in our own systems and to be able to work with others who might want to develop their own system,” Fendley says.

Kratos has an extensive background in targeting drones. That work is expected to see a major increase as the Pentagon grows its focus on counter-uncrewed aerial systems. The company’s BQM-167, BQM-177 and MQM-178 Firejet all can be used for high-end counter UAS. For example, the Firejet would be an effective emulation of Iranian Shahed drones while the others would offer an “even higher capability,” he says.