It seems Airbus has grown tired of the comically bad economics of modern air defense, where multi-million dollar missiles are routinely used to swat drones worth less than a used car. The company just demonstrated its answer: a reusable hunter drone that fires its own tiny, low-cost missiles. Dubbed the Bird of Prey, the system recorded its first air-to-air kill during a maiden demonstration flight in Germany.
The announcement came via a post on X from Boris Alexander Beissner, a department head at Airbus Defence and Space, who noted the project went from kickoff to its first successful intercept in a blistering nine months. The Bird of Prey is a modified Do-DT25 target drone, a 160 kg platform with a 2.5-meter wingspan, that has been repurposed from catching missiles to firing them.
During the test, the drone autonomously hunted and engaged a kamikaze target drone with a “Frankenburg Mk1” missile. These ultra-light interceptors, developed by partner Frankenburg Technologies, weigh less than 2 kg each and measure just 65 cm long. The prototype carried four missiles, but operational versions are planned to carry up to eight. Each fire-and-forget missile has an engagement range of about 1.5 km and uses a fragmentation warhead to neutralize threats.
Why is this important?
The current cost-exchange ratio in drone warfare is unsustainable. Firing a Patriot missile, which can cost upwards of $4 million, to destroy a $20,000 drone is a strategy that leads to empty coffers and depleted stockpiles. The Bird of Prey system aims to flip that economic script entirely. By using a reusable, relatively low-cost drone to launch cheap, mass-producible interceptors, Airbus is creating a scalable defense against the growing threat of drone swarms. It’s less like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly and more like training a falcon to do it for you—efficiently, repeatedly, and without breaking the bank. Airbus and Frankenburg plan further tests throughout 2026 to bring the system to operational readiness.