The Airbus Bird of Prey interceptor drone successfully completed its first demonstration flight at a military training area in northern Germany. In a realistic mission scenario, it autonomously searched, detected and classified a medium-sized one-way attack (kamikaze) drone. After successful identification, the Bird of Prey interceptor engaged the target with a Mark I air-to-air missile developed by Estonian defence tech start-up partner Frankenburg Technologies.
“Against the current geopolitical and military backdrop, defending against kamikaze drones is a tactical priority that urgently needs to be tackled,” said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. “With our Bird of Prey and Frankenburg’s affordable Mark I missiles, we are providing armed forces with an effective, cost-efficient interceptor, filling a crucial capability gap in today’s asymmetric conflict theatres. The integration of Bird of Prey into Airbus’ air defence battle management suite Integrated Battle Management System (IBMS) acts as a force multiplier.”
“With our Bird of Prey and Frankenburg’s affordable Mark I missiles, we are providing armed forces with an effective, cost-efficient interceptor, filling a crucial capability gap in today’s asymmetric conflict theatres.”
Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space
“This is a defining step for modern air defence,” said Kusti Salm, CEO of Frankenburg Technologies. “Together with Airbus, it marks the first integration of a new class of low-cost, mass-manufacturable interceptor missiles onto a drone, creating a new cost curve for air defence and enabling defence against mass aerial threats at a fundamentally different scale.”
New Airbus drone interceptor promises low‑cost defence against kamikaze drones
The demonstration flight took place just nine months after the project started. Based on a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone, the Bird of Prey prototype used in the flight features a wingspan of 2.5 metres, a length of 3.1 metres, and a maximum take-off weight of 160 kg. While the prototype was equipped with two Mark I air-to-air missiles, the operational version will be able to carry up to eight of them.
The high-subsonic, fire-and-forget missiles have an engagement range of up to 1.5 kilometres, measure 65 centimetres in length and weigh less than 2 kg each, making them the lightest guided interceptors developed to date. They are equipped with a fragmentation warhead designed to neutralise targets at short proximity. This will enable the reusable Bird of Prey to engage and neutralise multiple kamikaze drones per mission, at a comparably low cost per kill.
The Bird of Prey’s lightweight fragmentation warheads enable rapid, close‑range neutralisation of multiple kamikaze drones per mission. Photo: Airbus
Bird of Prey set to join NATO’s integrated air defence
Bird of Prey is designed to seamlessly operate within NATO’s integrated air defence architecture via established command and control systems centred around Airbus’ Integrated Battle Management System (IBMS). Consequently, the counter-UAS (Uncrewed Aerial System) solution, Bird of Prey, can be an essential, highly mobile, and complementary building block of any integrated, layered air and missile defence solution.
“Together with Airbus, it marks the first integration of a new class of low-cost, mass-manufacturable interceptor missiles onto a drone, creating a new cost curve for air defence and enabling defence against mass aerial threats at a fundamentally different scale.”
Kusti Salm, CEO of Frankenburg Technologies
Airbus and Frankenburg plan to conduct additional flights with a live warhead throughout 2026 to further operationalise the system and demonstrate its full capabilities to interested potential customers.
GOOD TO KNOW
In February, Estonian defencetech company Frankenburg Technologies announced that it will live‑test its affordable anti‑drone solution in Ukraine, strengthening its export potential. The modern air‑defence developer plans to conduct live trials of its Mark I missile in Ukraine between April and June 2026, following an initial launcher demonstration at the World Defence Show in Riyadh earlier this year.
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