Elite: Dangerous lays out its 2026 roadmap, with a new Kestrel Mk II ship coming Feb. 24

Frontier Developments has shared its first Elite: Dangerous developer video of 2026, and it comes with a rough roadmap for the year. The next patch lands Tuesday, February 24, and it’s bringing a new ship: the Kestrel Mk II.

The Kestrel Mk II is being positioned as a nimble fighter, with vertical thrusters on its wings for tighter maneuvering. It also comes with a “Mark 2” plasma cannon that burns ship fuel when you fire it.

Frontier’s roadmap also calls for six total “vessels” across 2026: another in April, two in summer, one in autumn, and one in winter. The wording stands out since past roadmaps talked about “ships” specifically, so it’s not totally clear if Frontier is hinting at something beyond the usual flyable spacecraft.

April is also when “operations” are now expected to arrive. These are the raid-like, instanced group activities Frontier has been teasing, with missions built around on-foot play, ship combat, or a mix of both. You’ll be able to queue in with friends or use matchmaking from any starport location, with the developers pushing for squads that cover different roles and loadouts.

Frontier didn’t lock down many specifics yet, but it did confirm operations will come in different sizes and difficulties (all tuned for groups). Rewards include a currency you can spend on things like unique modules or engineering blueprints. There will also be Powerplay-linked variants that pay out extra perks like merits for your aligned faction and undermining impact against rivals.

Looking further out, the autumn update is teased as a “feature reboot,” though Frontier didn’t say which system is getting reworked beyond hinting it’s something core to Elite. The full dev video is embedded in the original post.