Due to changing requirements for drone performance, it was only operated by the United States Navy for a short period.

The XKD5G-1 was of conventional high-wing, twin-tail design, a Marquardt PJ46 pulsejet being mounted externally atop the fuselage, in the same style as the World War II German V-1;[1] it was one of the last aircraft produced for the U.S. military to be powered by a pulsejet.

[2] The KD5G had a top speed of 345 miles per hour (555 km/h); if it was not shot down during its mission, it could be recovered by parachute to be flown again.

By 1952, however, the speed requirements for target drones had increased to the point that the KD5G was considered too slow for operational service, while pulsejets also lost efficiency quickly at higher altitudes; as a result the XKD5G-1 project was cancelled.

[2] A surviving XKD5G-1 was donated to the National Air and Space Museum by the U.S. Navy in 1966; it is displayed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.