Airbus Developed New Drone Called LOUT with Germany's Federal Ministry of Defence

Airbus started developing LOUT (Low-Observable UAV Testbed) in 2007 and it's been kept as a secret since then. In 2010, the project started receiving support from the Federal Ministry of Defence in Germany, and it was developed at Airbus facilities in Bremen and Manching, Bavaria, Germany. 

The drone, LOUT, that is developed will be camouflaged and undetectable by radar. Also, the heat radiation that is emitted by LOUT will be very little and it will fly so quietly that it'd almost be impossible to detect it. 

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Photos of a test model have been published by Airbus. Both the length and wingspan of the test model are 12 meters.  

The project hadn't been unveiled until recently, and now the company revealed that the drone will have its first test flight in 2026. 

The LOUT drone is expected to be a contribution to the Future Combat Air System (FCAS). FCAS is a system that is being developed in Germany, France, and Spain. 

On its website, Airbus describes FCAS with the following statement, "The cornerstone of FCAS is the next-generation weapon system where next-generation fighters team up with remote carriers as force multipliers. Additionally, manned and unmanned platforms will also provide their uniqueness to the collective capabilities while being fully interoperable with allied forces across domains from land to cyber. The air combat cloud will enable the leveraging of networked capabilities of all pooled platforms."

LOUT can also be used for attacks on radar systems. Also, the entire FCAS is expected to be ready for use in 2040.