ILA Berlin 2026: Diehl and Polaris unveil Cobra 600, a jet-powered drone built to air-launch the IRIS-T

Germany’s Diehl Defence and Polaris Raumflugzeuge have revealed the Cobra 600, a delta-wing unmanned aircraft designed to carry and air-launch a single IRIS-T missile, at the ILA Berlin 2026 air show. The manufacturers say the concept could push the effective air-defence engagement zone from roughly 40 kilometres on ground launchers toward 400 kilometres. The system remains at an early development stage.

Lead

At the ILA Berlin Air and Space Show, held from 10 to 14 June 2026, Diehl Defence and Polaris Raumflugzeuge presented a concept aimed at stretching the geography of air defence rather than the range of the missile itself. According to Army Recognition and Janes, the short-range air-defence missile house Diehl and the reusable-spaceplane developer Polaris showed the Cobra 600 for the first time, configured to carry a single IRIS-T on a dorsal rail. Branded the Airborne Launching and Attack System (AirLAS), the project behaves less like a combat drone and more like an airborne launch rail that ferries the missile far forward of its home base.

Details

The cooperation agreement was signed at the June 2025 Paris Air Show in Le Bourget. The demonstrator at ILA Berlin 2026 is the first tangible result of roughly a year of development. As TWZ and Army Recognition reported from the show floor, the prototype has already completed initial flight trials carrying an inert IRIS-T mockup. Development is described as mainly company-funded, supplemented by investment from at least one interested nation.

A notable feature was that, although designed for four turbojets, the aircraft appeared at ILA with only two installed, the other pair reportedly removed temporarily for another company project. The demonstrator used two JetCat P1000-PRO micro-turbojets, each producing just under 250 pounds of thrust, underscoring that the airframe is a technology-validation platform rather than a production-standard vehicle.

What is the system

The Cobra 600 takes its name from its airframe length: six metres. It uses a full-delta-wing layout with wingtip vertical stabilisers. Retractable tricycle landing gear is intended to let it operate from runways or shorter prepared strips, including suitable stretches of highway, and to be recovered and reused. The missile rides on a rail mounted to the top of the fuselage, using a Eurofighter-type pylon interface.

The weapon it carries, Diehl’s IRIS-T, is a short-range, imaging-infrared-guided air-to-air missile. Open-source data put it at 2.94 metres long and 127 millimetres in diameter, with a speed of Mach 3 and an air-to-air range of about 25 kilometres. A defining trait is thrust-vector control, giving lock-on-after-launch capability and the ability to engage targets behind the launching platform. It is regarded as a fifth-generation IR-guided weapon using an imaging seeker with a two-colour InSb scanning array.

Technical and operational significance

The core logic is to move the launch point, not the missile’s reach. Ground-based IRIS-T SLS systems are credited with roughly 12 kilometres and the medium-range SLM with about 40 kilometres. According to figures shared at ILA Berlin 2026, the Cobra 600 has an approximate range of 400 kilometres with the missile fitted. That does not mean the missile flies farther; the drone is meant to carry the round hundreds of kilometres toward the threat before firing, pushing the engagement zone well forward.

In this construct the Cobra 600 acts less as an independent fighter and more as a forward firing point networked over a datalink with ground-based IRIS-T batteries. TWZ described it as a kind of missile taxi, picking up the round at base and carrying it toward the threat axis so the defensive umbrella stretches far beyond conventional range. Because the gear is retractable, the aircraft could be recovered and reused in some scenarios, a potential cost advantage over single-use effectors.

Background

Air-launching air-defence missiles is not new, but integrating a surface-to-air-class weapon onto an uncrewed, relatively low-cost platform is a distinctive direction. The Diehl-Polaris partnership traces to the exclusive cooperation agreement signed at the Paris Air Show in June 2025. Polaris is primarily a reusable-spaceplane developer, its Aurora programme and MIRA-series demonstrators built on an architecture blending aircraft and rocket technologies. As European Spaceflight reported, AirLAS represents an effort to carry that aerospace know-how into the defence domain.

The concept sits alongside the loyal-wingman and uncrewed-combat-aircraft trends of recent years. The underlying philosophy, putting cheap, numerous uncrewed platforms forward without risking expensive crewed jets, is increasingly being applied to air defence as well as strike and escort roles.

Relevance for Turkiye, NATO and the region

The Cobra 600 concept runs directly parallel to Turkiye’s work on integrating air-to-air missiles with uncrewed aircraft. Baykar’s Bayraktar Kizilelma destroyed a target drone off Sinop on 28 November 2025 using the TUBITAK SAGE-developed Gokdogan beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. As Naval News and Daily Sabah reported, the test marked the first time an autonomous uncrewed combat platform downed a target with a radar-guided missile at beyond-visual-range distances; the shot was guided by the ASELSAN-built MURAD AESA radar, and the trial included flying with five F-16s to validate manned-unmanned teaming.

The two projects rest on different logics. Kizilelma detects targets with its own radar and conducts BVR engagements; the Cobra 600 forward-deploys the missile and works in a networked relationship with ground systems. Even so, both reflect a shift in which air defence and air superiority are migrating from crewed jets toward uncrewed platforms. Turkiye’s own air-defence ecosystem, spanning ASELSAN and Roketsan from the HISAR family to SIPER, is evolving along similar lines of extended range and networked integration.

Open-source verification

• The Cobra 600’s six-metre length, full-delta-wing layout and retractable gear are corroborated across Army Recognition, Janes and TWZ.
• It is confirmed that the demonstrator was shown with two JetCat P1000-PRO engines instead of four, each rated at roughly 250 pounds of thrust.
• Multiple sources report the aircraft completed initial flight trials with an IRIS-T mockup; the IRIS-T baseline (imaging-IR, Mach 3, ~25 km) aligns with Wikipedia, Saab and Diehl.
• Unverified / concept-stage: the ~400 km figure rests solely on manufacturer statements, untested independently. The technology readiness level is low; the system is at the demonstrator/early-development stage.

Assessment

The Cobra 600 is a concrete expression of the idea that air defence can be made geographically mobile rather than tied to fixed batteries. The appeal is that, without changing the expensive missile itself, a relatively cheap and reusable platform carries the effective engagement zone forward. Yet the incomplete engine fit on display, the largely company-funded status and a flight history limited to a mockup all show how much road remains. The 400-kilometre claim should be read as a design target until validated by live-fire trials. Turkiye’s proven BVR uncrewed engagement with Kizilelma shows different architectures maturing in parallel.

Sources

• Army Recognition — Germany Reveals Cobra 600 UAV to Launch IRIS-T (12 June 2026)
• Janes — ILA 2026: Diehl debuts Cobra 600 airborne launch rail
• The War Zone — Germany’s Cobra 600 Jet-Powered Interceptor Drone
• Diehl Defence — Diehl Defence and POLARIS sign cooperation agreement
• Naval News — Kizilelma first air-to-air test-firing

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