Kratos Defense's 'Demogorgon' Class of Combat Drones Is In the Works

San Diego-based Kratos Defense, makers of transformative platforms, has a public website but its new products' details are barely made public. Kratos' products address communication needs or matters of national security, so it is hardly a surprise when the company only unveils the name of its new class of combat drones and nothing more.

Last April, we had reported that Kratos' Valkyrie drone test released another drone mid-air from its weapons bay on its sixth flight. The first-of-its-kind maneuver for the drone also opened a world of possibilities in warfare, where drones could deploy smaller drones to carry out higher-risk missions. Kratos' mission is to deploy affordable systems in all domains that it works and a dispensable drone fired by another drone that in many ways dispensible as well, shows the progress the company has made in this direction. 

The company's newest unveiling, Demogorgon, would be difficult to fit into the definition of dispensable though. According to a slide accessed by The Drive, at $8 million, this class of combat drones is priced twice as much as the Valkyrie. The name might seem inspired by a character in a science-fiction series but when a parent company's name is sourced from mythology, then its products are also likely to follow suit.

The thing is, not much about the drone or its combative abilities are known. Last month, the company had released renderings of its Off-board Sensing Station (OBSS) program drones for the U.S. Air Force and now it has confirmed to The Drive that Demogorgon is the nomenclature it will use for these drones. The media outlet points to an October press release from Kratos that said that OBSS will serve as a force multiplier and carry weapons or sensors that could provide this impact. 

In December, Steve Fendley, President of Unmanned Systems Division at Kratos had also told Breaking Defense that the OBSS drones could also be equipped with an exquisite sensor that could be part of a larger swarm of drones and not be dispensable in that mission.

Given that Kratos prides itself in making affordable systems and there is little in-flight that drones still need to achieve, Demogorgon is likely to be equipped with a game-changing sensor. We will bring you more updates on this soon.