Kratos reveals that Thanatos UAV has made its maiden flight
Aviation Week’s Brian Everstine reported on 11 December that Kratos Defense and Security “recently completed the first flight of its Thanatos stealthy uncrewed combat air vehicle.” The Thanatos initial flight…
December 12, 2024
Aviation Week’s Brian Everstine reported on 11 December that Kratos Defense and Security “recently completed the first flight of its Thanatos stealthy uncrewed combat air vehicle.” The Thanatos initial flight test programme is intended to prove the aircraft’s basic design before work begins in earnest on flying a fully integrated system.
Kratos is known to have worked on multiple classified tactical uncrewed aircraft designs, including LCASD, the X-61A Gremlin, the UTAP-22 Mako and the stealthy XQ-58A Valkyrie, with the XQ-58A Valkyrie and UTAP-22 Mako drones being used in a number of advanced autonomy development projects and for other test and evaluation projects.
In 2019, there were also programmes named Aetheon, Apollo, Athena, ‘A & Z’, ‘F’, Omega, Spartan and Thanatos, while the company’s Demogorgon competed for, but did not win, the USAF’s Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) requirement.
Kratos released a render of its on 2 November 2023 accompanying the company’s announcement of its financial results for the third quarter of 2023.
The stealthy Thanatos is the most advanced design that Kratos has unveiled to date, bearing some resemblance to the most recent BAE Systems ACP concept, apart from its overwing intakes.
Kratos said that it hopes to have a contract for Thanatos by next year, and said that the project was one of a number of “new programme opportunities” that would require additional investment in 2024, but that could then contribute to significant growth for the company in 2025.
This funding profile may fit with the USAF’s plan to mount a competition to pick one or more CCA designs in the 2024 Fiscal Year (which runs from October 1) with work due to start on the initial batch of those aircraft beginning could begin in Fiscal Year 2025.
It may be entirely coincidental that the CGI concept art released by Kratos includes a US Air Force logo on the rear fuselage, leading some to conclude that the aircraft could be tied to the USAF’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme.
