Overview
- The Bird of Prey, which completed its first demonstration flight Monday in northern Germany, autonomously found and classified a medium one-way attack drone before firing a Frankenburg Mark I missile.
- Airbus said the drone runs search, detection and classification on its own while a human operator authorizes any weapons release.
- The prototype is a modified Do-DT25 drone that is 3.1 meters long with a 2.5-meter wingspan and 160 kilograms maximum takeoff weight, and it carried four missiles with operational versions expected to carry up to eight.
- Frankenburg’s Mark I is a high-subsonic, fire-and-forget interceptor about 65 centimeters long and under 2 kilograms with an electro-optical seeker, a fragmentation warhead and roughly 1.5 kilometers of range.
- Airbus plans live-warhead flights through 2026 and NATO-compatible integration via its Integrated Battle Management System, targeting early 2027 for operational use to help counter mass-produced kamikaze drones at lower cost.