Kratos Air Wolf Tactical Drone Successfully Completes Test Flight At Burns Flat

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, has announced that it’s Air Wolf Tactical Drone System has completed a 100 percent successful flight at the recently approved Burns Flat, Oklahoma Range Facility.

The Kratos Air Wolf Mission, which was the inaugural flight at the Burns Flat Range location, included multiple new payloads carried by the Air Wolf UAV, including a proprietary Kratos artificial intelligence/autonomy system, which has been developed by Kratos specifically for high performance, jet UAV aircraft.

On Aug. 25, 2021, Kratos released a picture, seen at the top of this story, of an Air Wolf drone just prior to launch at a range in Burns Flat, Oklahoma, along with a press release regarding that test flight.

It is not clear when this test flight occurred or if it was the first successful flight of an Air Wolf drone, though we do know it was the first flight test of any kind at the Burns Flat range. Kratos had previously said it expected to begin flight testing of this unmanned aircraft last year.

The “Air Wolf Tactical Drone System completed a 100 percent successful flight at the recently approved Burns Flat, Oklahoma Range Facility,” the press release said.

“The Kratos Air Wolf Mission, which was the inaugural flight at the Burns Flat Range location, included multiple new payloads carried by the Air Wolf Drone, including a proprietary Kratos artificial intelligence/autonomy system, which has been developed by Kratos specifically for high performance, jet drone aircraft.”

It is also worth noting that Kratos has a manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, around 95 miles east of Burns Flat.

“This successful Air Wolf flight at the recently approved Burns Flat Range facility is the latest example of the teaming approach Kratos routinely takes with its partners at the local, state and federal government levels with the objective of accelerating technology development and a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math advancement,” Steve Fendley, President of Kratos Unmanned Systems Division, said in the press release. “The Air Wolf drone system that successfully flew today demonstrated a number of new mission systems which we believe are operationally and tactically relevant for Kratos’ government customer set, as our proven commercial development approach and robust digital engineering, modeling and simulation capabilities, and affordability-focused processes continue to successfully rapidly deliver affordable high-performance jet aircraft, not just models, surrogates, or renditions.”

Air Wolf is one of several drones in Kratos’ family of jet drones that are flying today, also including the attributable UTAP-22 Mako, XQ-58A Valkyrie, and, in conjunction with the company’s partner Dynetics, the reusable X-61A Gremlins drone.

According to the company, the newly approved Burns Flat Test Range and Facility is an important new strategic asset available to it, enabling the company to accelerate its drone testing and demonstration, further increasing its ability to rapidly develop and demonstrate jet drones, supporting subsystems, and other tactical systems and aircraft.

Kratos develops and fields technology, platforms, and systems for United States national security-related customers, allies, and commercial enterprises.

The company specializes in unmanned systems, satellite communications, cyber security/warfare, microwave electronics, missile defense, hypersonic systems, training, combat systems, and next-generation turbo jet and turbofan engine development.