Germany’s POLARIS Spaceplanes has flown the COBRA 600, an unmanned aircraft designed in collaboration with Diehl Defence as part of the Airborne Launching and Attack System programme. Details of the successful first sortie, a smooth flight of roughly 20km undertaken on 22 August 2026, with subsequent testing to follow, were published in a statement issued that day. The jet-powered, reusable, flying wing aircraft, intended to carry an IRIS-T air-to-air missile beneath an upper-mounted launching rail, has a flight weight of more than 600 kg. The first flight tested the base vehicle and did not involve carrying or launching a weapon.
This application does exactly the same, except for turning missile launches into unmanned aircraft. Using the interceptor closer to where there’s a threat to a plane launched purely from the ground would surely increase effective range and get airborne defence without a manned plane, where usually such defence wouldn’t be present within range of stand-off weapons. They will have to show integration of the missile with the target’s detection system and also a secure command link in order for missiles to be launched safely into the air. This is just the first step in achieving a relatively cheap, distributed drone defence system.
