Interceptor drone Bird of Prey: Airbus reports first demonstration flight

At a military training area in northern Germany, the Bird of Prey interceptor drone from Airbus has successfully completed its first demonstration flight. According to the company, it autonomously searched for, detected and classified a medium-sized kamikaze drone in a realistic mission scenario. Once the target was identified, Bird of Prey engaged it with a Mark I air-to-air missile developed by the defence technology start-up Frankenburg Technologies.

Only nine months passed between project start and demonstration flight. The prototype was a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone with a 2.5-metre wingspan, a length of 3.1 metres and a maximum take-off weight of 160 kilograms.

Armament of the interceptor drone

The prototype carried four Mark I air-to-air missiles; the operational version is to carry up to eight. The self-detonating missiles fly at high subsonic speed, have a range of up to 1.5 kilometres, measure 65 centimetres and each weigh less than two kilograms – no guided interceptor missile is lighter to date. Their fragmentation warhead neutralises targets in close proximity. The reusable Bird of Prey can thus engage and neutralise several kamikaze drones per mission at comparatively low cost per kill.

Bird of Prey is designed for seamless integration into the integrated air defence architecture of NATO. It uses established command and control systems based on Airbus's Integrated Battle Management System (IBMS). The solution for countering unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) can thus form an essential, highly mobile and complementary element of any integrated, multi-layered air and missile defence.