Unleashing a missile high above Germany, that is the experimental ‘Bird of Prey’ interceptor drone intended to tackle Iran and Russia’s flying arsenal.
The unmanned aircraft, designed by Airbus, has been put together in only nine months and has the potential to take down kamikaze drones like Iran’s now infamous Shaheds.
In the course of the trial, the Bird of Prey was deployed in a practical mission scenario, where it looked for, detected, and classified a medium-sized one-way attack drone.
After identifying the goal, it engaged it using a Mark I air-to-air missile developed by defence technology start-up Frankenburg Technologies.
Mike Schoellhorn, chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space, said: ‘Against the present geopolitical and military backdrop, defending against kamikaze drones is a tactical priority that urgently must be tackled.
‘With our Bird of Prey and Frankenburg’s inexpensive Mark I missiles, we’re providing armed forces with an efficient, cost-efficient interceptor, filling an important capability gap in today’s asymmetric conflict theatres.
‘The combination of Bird of Prey into Airbus’ air defence battle management suite IBMS acts as a force multiplier.”
The prototype relies on a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone and has a wingspan of two.5 metres, a length of three.1 metres, and a maximum take-off weight of 160kg.
Within the test configuration, it carried 4 Mark I missiles, although the operational version is anticipated to hold as much as eight.
The high-subsonic, fire-and-forget missiles have a variety of as much as 1.5 kilometres and weigh lower than 2kg each, making them among the many lightest guided interceptors developed so far.
They’re fitted with a fragmentation warhead designed to neutralise targets at close range.
‘It is a defining step for contemporary air defence,’ said Kusti Salm, chief executive of Frankenburg Technologies. ‘Along with Airbus, it marks the primary integration of a brand new class of low-cost, mass-manufacturable interceptor missiles onto a drone, making a recent cost curve for air defence and enabling defence against mass aerial threats at a fundamentally different scale.’
Developers say the reusable drone could engage multiple targets during a single mission at relatively low price, offering a possible response to the growing use of one-way attack drones in modern conflicts akin to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict within the Middle East.
The system has been designed to operate inside NATO’s integrated air defence architecture using established command-and-control systems centred on Airbus’s Integrated Battle Management System.
Further test flights, including trials with live warheads, are planned throughout 2026.
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