US Marine Takes Control of Valkyrie Drone in Electronic Warfare Mission
A US Marine successfully took control of a Kratos Valkyrie drone beyond line of sight during an electronic warfare mission in southern California.
The US Marine Corps has made a significant breakthrough in unmanned aircraft technology, with a Marine taking control of a Kratos Valkyrie drone beyond line of sight during an electronic warfare mission.
The mission, which took place in April 2026, involved the Valkyrie collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) flying alongside F-35 fighter jets and an F/A-18 at a US Navy test range in southern California. The Valkyrie launched from a zero-length launcher and returned autonomously to its recovery point.
The handover of control from Kratos' ground control station to the human-machine interface developed by Autonodyne allowed the Marine operator to fly the aircraft over a beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) link. This was validated and characterized by the test team, who were led by the Expeditionary Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team.
| Configuration | Valkyrie Variant | Payload | Location | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | USMC | Valkyrie CCA | Not specified | US Navy test range in southern California | | Company-funded | Valkyrie | Not specified | US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah |
The announcement of the successful mission came two weeks after an XQ-58 Valkyrie crashed at the US Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah on August 4, 2026. However, Kratos has not connected the two events.
Steve Fendley, President of the Kratos' Unmanned Systems Division, stated that the April flight marked the fourth new mission-system configuration flown on USMC Valkyrie platforms in under three years.
The US Marine Corps selected Northrop Grumman and Kratos in January 2026 for its Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) CCA program. Kratos is also expanding production capacity toward approximately 40 Valkyries a year and is separately developing a Valkyrie variant with Airbus for the German Air Force.
In related news, another CCA, the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat, joined an even larger formation of crewed aircraft during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 in June. The MQ-28 Ghost Bat flew alongside F-35A, F-35B, F-15EX, E-3, E-2D, EA-18G, and RC-135 aircraft in the Marianas Island Range Complex.
