US Military Stealth Drone damaged: Report
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MOSCOW - The XQ-58A Valkyrie drone intended to become the US Air Force’s “loyal wingman” for F-22 and F-35 pilots was damaged in its most recent flight earlier this week.
It was just the third time the 28-foot-long Valkyrie unmanned aerial vehicle took to the skies, but “high surface winds” at the test range in Yuma, Arizona, caused some damage to the aircraft, including “a malfunction of the vehicle’s provisional flight test recovery system [that] resulted in a mishap after landing which damaged the aircraft,” according to an Air Force statement link Thursday, Sputnik has reported.
No estimate was given for how long the repairs will take or when the fourth flight will be.
“We continue to learn about this aircraft and the potential the technology can offer to the warfighter,” Maj. Gen. William Cooley, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, said in the statement. “This third flight successfully completed its objectives and expanded the envelope from the first two flights.
We have gathered a great deal of valuable data from the flight and will even learn from this mishap. Ultimately, that is the objective of any experiment, and we’re pleased with the progress of the Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstration program.”
