The United States Air Force has successfully tested the jet-powered drone XQ-58A Valkyrie its inaugural flight on March 5th, 2019 at Yuma Proving Grounds, Arizona.
The XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator is a long-range, high subsonic unmanned air vehicle which is developed by the partnership of the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems as a comparably cheap platform that can be placed as an electronic warfare.
According to the New Atlas, The XQ-58A has a range of just under (2,449 mi, 3,941 km) and because of its compact size 29-ft (9-m) long, wingspan of 22 ft (6.7 m) it can use a conventional runway or can be launched via rocket. It has space for eight weapons, including JDAMs and other small diameter bombs.
Majorly its development was a part of being a cheaper version which could be used as an escort for the F-22 or F-35 fighter planes in the surveillance and attack situations. After its first successful flight its scheduled to perform four more test flights to evaluate its flight systems, aerodynamic performance, and launch and recovery systems.
