Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie

XQ-58 Valkyrie Drone Family Has Grown To Five Variants

Kratos says the capabilities of its flagship XQ-58 drone line are expanding substantially as it works to push down unit costs.
www.twz.com

View: https://x.com/shieldaitech/status/1773698496882786466?s=20

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SRme_WfgDs
 
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View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1808284789583368545

View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1808286127066939724
 
Josh_TN said:
That carriage rolling at a hundred miles an hour after separation must create a whole new type of Trolly Problem…
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It's basically like a refused take-off at that point, but with only the weight of the trolley to be stopped. Seems manageable.
 
Interesting that they now admit the original trailer couldn´t take up the full-up takeoff load.

But where did I hear that before? ;)
 
TomcatViP said:
Interesting that they now admit the original trailer couldn´t take up the full-up takeoff load.

But where did I hear that before? ;)
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Where did they say that? The old trailer is for transport, with launch done with RATO and a zero-length rail. The KTLS has nothing to do with weight.
 
TomS said:
The point of that statement is that both RATO and KTLS allow them to dispense with the weight of built-in landing gear.
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I reckon the semantic used make it very debatable. See how The War Zone is leaning on this in the link above:
So, the use of a conventional runway means the XQ-58 can get aloft with a higher gross weight, which can equate to more weapons, sensors, and fuel. Kratos has told The War Zone that the increase “is in the 10s of % for both fuel and payload capacity” and “enables quite an advantage for amount of payload and range / endurance of the system.” The use of the aircraft is also not limited to rocket boosters on-hand at any given location.
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Honestly, I'd say the biggest advantage is not HAVING to have launch boosters. Even if it didn't give you any bonus fuel and payload.

Because now you can launch one of those from inside interdicted airspace a second time.
 
TomcatViP said:
I reckon the semantic used make it very debatable. See how The War Zone is leaning on this in the link above:
Click to expand...

So yes, KTDL offers a bit more MTOW than RATO. But I thought you were originally saying the trailer used to transport the XQ-58 was too small. That's not really related to the RATO vs trolley launch question.
 
Not exactly. I said that I doubted the trailer was rated for the adverted vehicle MGTOW. I encouraged the reader to focus on the axels and tires rating.
 

 
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