Kratos company has temporarily suspended flight testing of its XQ-58 Valkyrie after one of the uncrewed aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff during a research flight at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah.
The accident occurred on August 4 at about 8:00 a.m. local time during what the company described as a self-funded research and development flight. Kratos said the aircraft was flying in a "test configuration" while evaluating new capabilities for the Valkyrie. No injuries or damage to facilities at Dugway were reported.
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The company has not disclosed the cause of the crash, the serial number of the aircraft or which version of the Valkyrie was involved. Flight testing will remain on hold while the investigation continues, although Kratos said it has additional test aircraft available once the review is complete.
One unanswered question is which configuration was being evaluated. The original XQ-58A was designed to launch using a rocket-assisted system and recover by parachute without requiring a runway. Kratos later introduced a runway trolley launch system that frees internal space previously occupied by launch equipment, followed by a version equipped with conventional retractable landing gear. The company has not identified which configuration crashed.
The accident does not appear to affect any customer-funded programs. Kratos described the mission as an internal development effort rather than a flight conducted for the U.S. military or another operator.
The Valkyrie has become one of the best-known collaborative combat aircraft demonstrators since its maiden flight in 2019. Designed as a low-cost autonomous aircraft capable of operating alongside crewed fighters, it can fly more than 3,000 nautical miles, reach speeds of about Mach 0.86 and carry weapons or other payloads in internal and external stations.
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The program has experienced setbacks before. In 2019, one prototype was damaged after a malfunction in its parachute recovery system following a test flight, temporarily interrupting the flight campaign before testing resumed.
Despite the latest accident, development of the Valkyrie continues on several fronts. The U.S. Marine Corps has been evaluating the aircraft as part of its collaborative combat aircraft initiatives, while Airbus is preparing two Valkyries in Germany to test the company's Manned-Unmanned Teaming and mission system technologies. The first flight of that configuration remains planned for 2026.
So far, neither Kratos nor government officials have indicated that the Utah crash will affect those programs. The company has only stated that the aircraft involved was an internal test asset evaluating new capabilities before the accident.
