MQ-58 Valkyrie Drones Now Cost $6M-$8M Each
Kratos has provided an interesting update on the price of its Valkyrie drones. The uncrewed aircraft currently cost roughly $6 to $8 million, depending on their configuration and without certain mission systems installed. Though this is a more expensive price point than Kratos has said it has been aiming for in the past, it still puts Valkyrie firmly at the lower end of the cost spectrum for Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drones based on available information, while still providing relatively high-end capabilities.
Kratos’ President and CEO Eric DeMarco shared the new cost figures, as well as other new details about the Valkyrie program, during a recent quarterly earnings call. He also spent considerable time talking about his view that affordability will be a central key factor for prospective customers for CCA-type drones going forward.
The first XQ-58A seen being tested by the US Air Force. USAF
“I would not want to be anyone else than Kratos with the Valkyrie, that’s in production, that comes off the line, ‘white tail,’ six million dollars or something like that, maybe eight [million dollars], depending on configuration,” DeMarco said at one point during the call. “Missionized is more.”
Some more context is necessary before any more discussion of these cost figures. DeMarco’s remarks here were part of a lengthy response to a question about Kratos’ view of potential U.S. opportunities for sales of CCA-type drones in the next year.
The U.S. Air Force has been operating a small number of XQ-58As since the type first flew in 2019, in support of research and development and test and evaluation activities. The Marine Corps also experimented with the XQ-58A and is now in the process of acquiring a fully missionized version of the Valkyrie for operational use through that service’s CCA program. Those drones are sometimes referred to as the MQ-58Bs. Northrop Grumman is technically the prime contractor for the Marine effort, which falls under the umbrella of the larger Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) program.
Kratos has also secured at least two other contracts for Valkyries from other still-unidentified customers. At least one of them is outside of the United States and took delivery of drones back in the third quarter of 2025. The company is known to be pursuing a bid to supply a version of the Valkyrie called the U740 to the German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, through a partnership with Airbus. The U740 made its first flight at an unnamed test facility in northern Europe last month.
The ride of the Valkyrie
With the successful first flight of the Airbus U740 Valkyrie in Europe, we are one step closer to introducing an operational uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) to the German and other European Armed Forces.
The flight achieved all… pic.twitter.com/S2sFrtdmGA— Airbus Defence (@AirbusDefence) October 12, 2026
At the time of writing, Valkyrie drones fall into two main categories, at least that we know of. These are rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO) versions, which lack landing gear, and landing gear-equipped conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) types that operate from traditional runways. The U.S. Air Force’s XQ-58As, as well as the European U740, are RATO types. The MQ-58Bs the Marines are acquiring are CTOL versions.
A rendering of a CTOL version of the Valkyrie. Kratos
Kratos has also developed a special launch trolley so RATO drones can take off from a runway. No matter how they get into the air, drones in the RATO configuration land via parachute at the end of a sortie. CTOL drones can also be launched via the RATO method, but then land on a traditional runway.
An XQ-58A lands via parachute at the end of a sortie. USAF
In March 2024, before the CTOL version was officially disclosed, Kratos told TWZ that there were at least five distinct subvariants of the Valkyrie. The company has been steadily working to expand the performance envelope of the core design since its first flight in 2019, too.
Going back to the matter of the Valkyrie’s unit price, DeMarco had put the figure at around $6.5 million back in 2023. The following year, he told TWZ directly that the price range for RATO versions, specifically, was between $4 and $6 million. At that time, he said the $4 million figure reflected economies of scale benefits from a production run of 100 drones. Kratos had said years ago now that it was hoping to eventually be able to drive down the price point to $2 million apiece as production ramped up. As of August, the company’s stated goal was to get to an annual production rate of 40 airframes by 2028.
One of the Marine Corps’ RATO-configured XQ-58A drones seen during a test flight. USMC
As noted earlier, even at $8 million, Valkyrie’s unit cost is deepl
Source: www.twz.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.