The ‘bird of prey’ that hunts and destroys Iran and Russia’s kamikaze drones

Unleashing a missile high above Germany, this is the experimental ‘Bird of Prey’ interceptor drone intended to tackle Iran and Russia’s flying arsenal.

The unmanned aircraft, designed by Airbus, has been put together in just nine months and has the potential to take down kamikaze drones like Iran’s now infamous Shaheds.

During the trial, the Bird of Prey was deployed in a realistic mission scenario, where it searched for, detected, and classified a medium-sized one-way attack drone.

After identifying the target, it engaged it using a Mark I air-to-air missile developed by defence technology start-up Frankenburg Technologies.

Mike Schoellhorn, chief executive of Airbus Defence and Space, said: ‘Against the current geopolitical and military backdrop, defending against kamikaze drones is a tactical priority that urgently needs to be tackled.

‘With our Bird of Prey and Frankenburg’s affordable Mark I missiles, we are providing armed forces with an effective, cost-efficient interceptor, filling a crucial capability gap in today’s asymmetric conflict theatres.

‘The integration of Bird of Prey into Airbus’ air defence battle management suite IBMS acts as a force multiplier.”

The prototype is based on a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone and has a wingspan of 2.5 metres, a length of 3.1 metres, and a maximum take-off weight of 160kg.

In the test configuration, it carried four Mark I missiles, although the operational version is expected to carry up to eight.

The high-subsonic, fire-and-forget missiles have a range of up to 1.5 kilometres and weigh less than 2kg each, making them among the lightest guided interceptors developed to date.

They are fitted with a fragmentation warhead designed to neutralise targets at close range.

‘This is a defining step for modern air defence,’ said Kusti Salm, chief executive of Frankenburg Technologies. ‘Together with Airbus, it marks the first integration of a new class of low-cost, mass-manufacturable interceptor missiles onto a drone, creating a new cost curve for air defence and enabling defence against mass aerial threats at a fundamentally different scale.’

Developers say the reusable drone could engage multiple targets during a single mission at relatively low cost, offering a potential response to the growing use of one-way attack drones in modern conflicts such as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East.

The system has been designed to operate within NATO’s integrated air defence architecture using established command-and-control systems centred on Airbus’s Integrated Battle Management System.

Further test flights, including trials with live warheads, are planned throughout 2026.

MORE: Oil prices spike again after Trump threatens to bomb Iran ‘back to the Stone Ages’

MORE: Inside the major UK military exercise simulating an invasion of Nato ally

MORE: Trump says Iran’s president has asked for ceasefire – but he won’t give him one