Start News Air USMC Completes First Flight of XQ-58A Valkyrie Autonomous, Low-Cost Tactical UAV

U.S. Marine Corps XQ-58A Valkyrie completes first flight — A US Marine Corps XQ-58A Valkyrie highly autonomous, low-cost tactical UAV conducts its first test flight with a US Air Force F-16 aircraft assigned to the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on 3 October 2023. (Photo: USAF)

USMC Completes First Flight of XQ-58A Valkyrie Autonomous, Low-Cost Tactical UAV

Peter Felstead

16. October 2023

The US Marine Corps (USMC) has completed the first test flight of the XQ-58A Valkyrie autonomous, low-cost tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) out of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, with the aircraft performing as expected, the USMC announced on 5 October 2023.

The flight, which took place on 3 October, was conducted in collaboration with the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)), the Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) and was supported by the US Air Force’s 40th Flight Test Squadron, 96th Test Wing. The flight marks a key milestone in the USMC’s Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer – Portfolio (PAACK-P) programme. Future test flights will inform USMC XQ-58A Valkyrie requirements for the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Unmanned Aerial System Expeditionary (MUX) Tactical Aircraft (TACAIR).

“This XQ-58A test flight and the data collected today not only help to inform future requirements for the Marine Corps,” said Scott Bey, a prototyping and experimentation portfolio manager at OUSD(R&E). “It fuels continued joint innovation and experimentation opportunities and demonstrates the agility that can be achieved through partnership.”

A US Marine Corps XQ-58A Valkyrie highly autonomous, low-cost tactical UAV conducts its first test flight with a US Air Force F-16 aircraft assigned to the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on 3 October 2023. (Photo: USAF)

The XQ-58A has a total of six planned test flights with objectives that include evaluating the platform’s ability to support a variety of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions; the effectiveness of autonomous electronic support to crewed platforms; the potential for artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled platforms to augment combat air patrols; and continued maturation of other manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capability objectives.

The USMC received the first of two XQ-58A UAVs on 14 March 2023 to support platform prototyping and integration efforts for the PAACK-P programme.

“The Marine Corps constantly seeks to modernise and enhance its capabilities in a rapidly evolving security environment,” Lieutenant Colonel Donald Kelly, from the Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation Cunningham Group and Advanced Development Team, was quoted as saying. “Testing the XQ-58 Valkyrie determines requirements for a highly autonomous, low-cost tactical [unmanned aerial systems] that complement the need for agile, expeditionary and lethal capabilities in support of both the Marine Corps’ stand-in force operations in austere environments and the Joint Force.”