Kratos and General Atomics will develop an unmanned sensor station for combat aircraft
(USAF)
Kratos and General Atomics received contracts from the US Air Force Research Laboratory to develop and test an unmanned sensor station (Off Board Sensing Station, OBSS). It will be a cheap open-architecture drone that will be able to act as an unmanned slave.
Little is known about the OBSS program of the US Air Force Research Laboratory. It involves the creation of a new type of cheap, but high-tech drone. The service life of this vehicle will not exceed several years, and no repair work will be foreseen for it.
In October, Kratos and General Atomics entered into contracts with the US military to develop and flight test the OBSS unmanned sensor station. This device will be able to be an unmanned slave of combat aircraft, searching for and tracking targets using radar and infrared sensors, and, possibly, carry weapons.
Companies must demonstrate that they can develop and test a drone cheaply and quickly - all work needs to be completed by the end of next year. Kratos says the unmanned sensor station will be a modular jet-powered drone designed for aircraft takeoff and landing. It plans to equip the device with a significant amount of strike weapons so that it can also act as an external weapons bay for manned aircraft.
Kratos does not disclose other details about the project. But perhaps the new drone will be a chassis version of her XQ-58A Valkyrie. The XQ-58A Valkyrie is also being created as part of a program to develop relatively cheap vehicles that could take over part of the strike missions of manned aircraft.