Kratos has provided a rendering of its Thanatos drone for the first time. The company says it hopes to have gotten a contract by next year related to this stealth drone, the most advanced design the company has unveiled to date.
Though the potential customer remains unnamed, the artist’s conception includes a U.S. Air Force logo, suggesting this could be tied to the service’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program or other advanced drone projects.
We are in discussions with a customer and hope to be under contract next year related to certain other Kratos tactical drone systems, including Thanatos,”
Eric DeMarco, Kratos’ President and CEO, said in a press release.
The rendering does show a tailless uncrewed aircraft with a number of textbook low-observable (stealthy) elements, including a shovel nose design, deep chine line, blended and recessed inlets, and a platypus-like trailing edge extension concealing a recessed exhaust. A tail design like this helps significantly reduce an aircraft’s infrared signature on top of its radar stealth features.
Thanatos also has diamond-shaped wings, which can offer reduced drag at high subsonic and supersonic speeds.
As has already been noted, the rendering shows Thanatos wearing both a Kratos logo and a U.S. Air Force logo. We have seen this combination in renderings of other drones the company has pitched to the Air Force in the past. This makes it very likely that the potential customer Kratos is hoping to get a contract from in relation to this design is the Air Force.
Source: y!news