Marine operator flew Valkyrie drone in F-35 electronic warfare test

Kratos Defense has released details of an April 2026 test in which a US Marine Corps operator took control of a Valkyrie uncrewed aircraft during an electronic warfare mission flown alongside F-35 fighter jets and an F/A-18.

The manufacturer said the mission took place at a US Navy test range in southern California. The missionized Valkyrie, a collaborative combat aircraft variant, launched from a zero-length launcher and returned to its recovery point autonomously.

Once airborne, control passed from a Kratos ground station to a human-machine interface built by Autonodyne, which complies with a government autonomy architecture standard. That handover let the Marine fly the aircraft over a beyond-line-of-sight link while a test team assessed the command-and-control datalink. Kratos did not disclose the payload used or the specific aircraft configuration.

An integrated team led by the Expeditionary Maritime Aviation-Advanced Development Team ran the test. It included Marine Corps test squadrons, Naval Air Test and Evaluation squadrons, Northrop Grumman, Autonodyne and Kratos.

Kratos did not name the test range, nor did it explain why disclosure came roughly four months after the flight. Neither the Marine Corps nor Naval Air Systems Command had publicly confirmed the test at the time of the announcement.

The disclosure came about two weeks after a separate XQ-58 Valkyrie crashed at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah on August 4, 2026. According to the company, that incident led Kratos to pause Valkyrie flight operations.