Airbus Defence and Space has completed a first demonstration flight of its Bird of Prey interceptor drone at a military training area in northern Germany. The test focused on detecting and stopping one-way attack drones.
In the trial, the drone operated without direct control. It searched for a target, identified a medium-sized kamikaze UAV, and then engaged it using a Mark I air-to-air missile developed with Frankenburg Technologies.
The system is built on a modified Airbus Do-DT25. The prototype has a 2.5 meter wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of 160 kilograms. It currently carries four missiles, though Airbus says an operational version will carry up to eight.
“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.”
What’s particularly interesting is that the Bird of Prey carried missiles and did not destroy itself in the interaction, thereby saving potentially millions in drone costs. The Frankenburg Mark I missile is designed for short-range interception. It is about 65 centimeters long, weighs under 2 kilograms, and has a range of up to 1.5 kilometers. It uses a fragmentation warhead intended to disable small aerial targets at close distance. The design aims to keep cost and weight low, which allows the interceptor drone to engage multiple targets in a single mission. Because it fragments, it can easily destroy a target even if it doesn’t score a direct hit.
Airbus says the system is meant to operate within existing NATO air defense networks through its Integrated Battle Management System. That places the interceptor as one layer in a broader air defense structure rather than a standalone solution.
The program moved from start to flight test in nine months. Airbus and Frankenburg plan additional tests through 2026, including flights with live warheads, as they move the system toward operational use.
