Kratos goes public with Air Wolf jet-powered drone

San Diego-based drone-maker, Kratos, is developing a small, jet-powered drone that manned aircraft would be able to launch mid-flight in order to extend their sensor and, potentially, weapons range.

Air Wolf, a derivative of Kratos’ MQM-178 Firejet target drone, completed a “100% successful” test flight at the Burns Flat range facility in Oklahoma, the company announced on August 25. Air Wolf rounds out Kratos’ portfolio of frontline unmanned combat air vehicles – and could signal an even tighter integration of manned and unmanned jets in the US military’s future fighter mix.

Kratos has been quietly working on Air Wolf for several years now, occasionally mentioning the type at industry events and during investor presentations. As for the launch customer for the Air Wolf project, this is “confidential,” according to Kratos. It wasn’t until after the August test flight that Kratos truly went public with Air Wolf.

“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 proprieta…