Category: war and warfare

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830: AI-ENABLED COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT RESHAPING THE AIR POWER

 

On July 10 this year, over restricted airspace at Edwards Air Force Base in California, an uncrewed aircraft crossed an important threshold in military aviation. An Anduril Industries YFQ-44A fired a live AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile at a simulated target after receiving only the command to strike from a human operator. The aircraft itself handled the engagement geometry, target tracking and weapon release, becoming the first American autonomous combat wingman to complete a live air-to-air weapons engagement. The test, supported by the Air Dominance Combined Test Force from Edwards’ 412th Test Wing, marked far more than a successful missile launch.

The event’s demonstration was significant. The autonomy software managed the entire sensor-to-shooter chain. The aircraft managed the mechanics of the engagement while the human retained the firing authority. It was a clear demonstration of how future air combat is likely to be fought. Allowing pilots to command formations of autonomous teammates rather than fly every engagement themselves.

 

Collaborative Combat Aircraft

An AI-enabled collaborative combat aircraft, also known as an ‘Uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft’ (UCCA) or ‘loyal wingman’, is an autonomous, armed aerial platform designed to operate alongside fighter jets. It can fly in formation, engage threats, and respond to changing battlefield conditions without requiring a ground operator to manage its every move. The main idea behind the CCA is to increase ‘combat mass’ during operations and extend the reach of crewed aircraft.
 

This is where the concept of Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) comes in. In essence, crewed combat aircraft act as the command centre, while the CCA is the operator’s ‘extended arm’. The pilot provides high-level mission objectives, which the CCA then executes at the desired level of autonomy. They can take on specialised roles: for instance, one CCA might engage an enemy target while others jam enemy radar or scan the battlefield and relay real-time data back to the pilot.

The CCAs can even coordinate among themselves, dynamically dividing responsibilities for reconnaissance, electronic warfare, decoy operations, and strike operations. Authority over the use of lethal force remains with the human operator, who is assisted by AI-based decision-support software.

The concept also changes how missions are executed. AI fuses all the sensor inputs (radar returns, infrared imagery, electronic support measures and off-board sensor feeds) into a single tactical picture.  Machine-learning algorithms continuously improve target recognition.

All of this is made possible by a sophisticated mission system. These systems allow humans and machines to work together seamlessly as a team. The CCA takes on the cognitive burden of processing data and carrying out routine manoeuvres, allowing the human pilot to focus on high-level tactical decisions.

 

CCA Necessity

In modern warfare, the side that can process information and act fastest has the advantage. In addition, it’s not just about the first 24 hours of a conflict; it’s also about endurance. The attraction of Collaborative Combat Aircraft is as much economic as technological.

Modern fifth-generation fighters are extraordinarily capable but also extraordinarily expensive to procure, sustain and replace. Every aircraft lost represents not only a financial cost but also years of pilot training. CCAs are designed to generate what air forces increasingly describe as affordable combat mass: multiplying combat power by pairing each crewed fighter with several autonomous aircraft that can undertake high-risk tasks without putting pilots in harm’s way.

This development changes the way air superiority is achieved, especially against a peer competitor. Commanders can distribute tasks, sensors, payloads, and weapons across a larger network of autonomous platforms.

They do not have to rely solely on a relatively small number of exquisite aircraft.

 

Global Programs

The United States Move from Experiment to Capability Development. The United States has progressed further than any other country in translating this concept into operational capability. The Air Force’s Increment 1 programme selected two aircraft for production: Anduril’s YFQ-44A and General Atomics’ YFQ-42A Dark Merlin. Together, they will form the service’s first operational fleet of Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The pace of their development has been remarkable. Within less than a year, the YFQ-44A progressed from its maiden flight (in October 2025) to a successful live air-to-air missile engagement. The industrial ecosystem is also expanding rapidly. Northrop Grumman, Kratos and General Atomics’ modular Gambit family are all developing related concepts. At the same time, the Air Force has indicated that future increments could follow a collaborative approach with allied participation. The objective would no longer be to build a better aircraft but to field interoperable autonomous combat fleets capable of operating alongside allied air forces.

British Program. Britain’s Royal Air Force has launched the £300 million Storm Fighter programme to develop autonomous aircraft capable of operating alongside the Typhoon, F-35, and, eventually, the Tempest sixth-generation fighter.

Australian Program. Australia’s Boeing MQ-28A Ghost Bat, developed under the Airpower Teaming System, predates the American CCA designation and has accumulated significantly more flight experience than either of the US Increment 1 designs.

Although these programmes differ in design philosophy and industrial approach, they reflect a striking convergence. Independent air forces have reached the same operational conclusion: future air superiority will depend less on ever more expensive crewed fighters operating alone and more on tightly integrated formations of humans and autonomous systems.

Chinese Program. China has pursued a more opaque but equally ambitious path towards AI-enabled collaborative combat aircraft. Rather than treating loyal wingmen as standalone projects, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) appears to be developing them as integral components of a networked combat ecosystem centred on the J-20 stealth fighter and future sixth-generation aircraft. State-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has unveiled several candidate platforms, including the FH-97A, widely regarded as China’s analogue to the US Collaborative Combat Aircraft, as well as concepts such as the Dark Sword and other high-speed unmanned combat air vehicles. Chinese military publications suggest these systems are intended to undertake high-risk missions including forward reconnaissance, electronic attack, suppression of enemy air defences, decoy operations and air-to-air combat, while remaining under human command for the employment of lethal force.

 

The Indian Approach

On the indigenous side, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) envisions a Tejas or future AMCA acting as a “mothership”, controlling multiple Warrior and Hunter drones capable of conducting reconnaissance, suppressing enemy air defences, defending the crewed fighter and striking high-value targets. HAL’s Unmanned Kiran programme offers a complementary, lower-cost route by converting existing Kiran Mk-II trainers into optionally manned aircraft capable of both piloted and autonomous operation.

The longer-term vision extends into the AMCA programme itself. Rather than retrofitting autonomy onto an existing platform, the AMCA is expected to incorporate manned-unmanned teaming from the outset, potentially supported by a future Combat Cloud architecture that links fighters, satellites, AWACS, and autonomous aircraft into a single combat network.

 

The Bottom Line

Collaborative Combat Aircraft represent the most significant conceptual shift in the application of airpower since the advent of stealth. CCAs would not replace the pilots but redefine their role. Future aviators will increasingly command formations of autonomous formations.

The air force that masters networked integration will enjoy advantages in decision speed, survivability, and operational endurance. The future of air power will belong not to the aircraft with the best individual performance, but to the force that can most effectively combine humans, machines and networks into a single fighting system.

 

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References and credits

To all the online sites and channels.

Pics Courtesy: Internet

Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from reliable and accurate sources. All copyrighted material belongs to the respective owners and is provided only for wider dissemination.

References: –

  1. U.S. Air Force News, “Air Dominance Combined Test Force conducts first autonomous CCA live missile firing at Edwards AFB”, 2025. https://www.af.mil/, https://www.edwards.af.mil/
  1. Anduril Industries. “YFQ-44A Autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft”, 2025. https://www.anduril.com/
  1. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft. (2025). https://www.ga-asi.com/
  1. Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Tempest Programme,  https://www.raf.mod.uk/

 

  1. Boeing Defence Australia. MQ-28 Ghost Bat (Airpower Teaming System). https://www.boeing.com/defense/
  1. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) https://hal-india.co.in/
  1. Scharre, P. Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. W. W. Norton. (2018).
  1. RAND Corporation. Studies on Autonomous Air Combat, Human-Machine Teaming, https://www.rand.org/
  1. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Airpower and AI Future Combat Aircraft,  https://www.csis.org/
  1. Endsley, M. R. (2017). From Here to Autonomy: Lessons Learned From Human–Automation Research. Human Factors.

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829: Podcast with Abhinay

Had an interesting chat with Abhinay of Prabhasakshi News Channel.

We talked about: –

  1. New balance of air power in the world today.
  2. Drones and Fighter aircraft.
  3. Different philosophies of Russia’s Su-57 and the U.S.’s F-35.
  4. Future of air warfare
  5. Timelines of indigenous fifth-generation aircraft. (AMCA).
  6. Role of AI in air warfare.
  7. Loyal Wingman drones.
  8. F-35 / Su-57 / AMCA.
  9. Aircraft engine technology development and production.
  10. Export of fighter jets as a geopolitical tool and a source of dependency.
  11. India’s greatest achievements and biggest challenges in terms of defence self-reliance.
  12. Indian Air Force of 2040.
  13. One trend in air warfare over the next 20 years.
  14. Balakot Operations.

 

Value additions are most welcome.

 

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Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from reliable and accurate sources. All copyrighted material belongs to the respective owners and is provided only for wider dissemination.

 

 

 

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826: NETRA GETS ITS WINGS

Provided video bytes and inputs on the subject to TV 9

 

 

On 25 June 2026, the Defence Research and Development Organisation formally conveyed Final Operational Clearance for the Netra Airborne Early Warning and Control system to the Indian Air Force at the Centre for Airborne Systems in Bengaluru. The occasion was noted in official circles with measured satisfaction. It deserved rather more. Nine years elapsed between Initial Operational Clearance in 2017 and this milestone.

India has operated the Netra on Embraer ERJ-145 platforms for several years. The aircraft flew in support of operations following the 2019 Balakot strikes and has participated in operational exercises that tested its ability to sustain surveillance in contested electromagnetic environments.

FOC represents the stage at which a developmental platform relinquishes its limitations and transforms into a fully operational instrument of air power. It signifies unrestricted deployment and comprehensive integration within the Indian Air Force (IAF) operational frameworks.

The Netra, developed indigenously, allows India to control the radar parameters, mission software, ESM configurations, and data link protocols. In an era when adversary electronic warfare suites are specifically engineered to exploit known platform signatures and communication patterns, this freedom of customisation is not a convenience; it is a strategic necessity and an asset.

 

Capabilities

The Netra’s Active Electronically Scanned Array radar, mounted in a dorsal fairing on the ERJ-145, reportedly provides 240-degree surveillance coverage with detection ranges ranging from 250 to 375 kilometres, depending on the target’s radar cross-section. Operating at altitude, it overcomes the fundamental limitation of ground-based radar (the curvature of the earth and the masking effects of terrain). A cruise missile flying at 30 metres above the surface of the earth will be invisible to a ground radar station 150 kilometres away. It won’t be invisible to Netra.

This capability matters enormously in the threat environment India now faces. The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have demonstrated that cruise missiles and drone swarms are no longer the preserve of great powers. Pakistan has invested substantially in loitering munitions and cruise missile capabilities. China’s inventory of precision standoff weapons is extensive and growing. India’s adversaries have, in effect, made low-observable, low-altitude attack the standard opening move of any escalatory exchange.

Netra’s signal processing architecture is designed to address this. Advanced moving-target indication algorithms filter out ground clutter and extract the signatures of slow-moving, low-radar-cross-section targets (armed UAVs and loitering munitions) from the background noise that defeats simpler systems. This is not a straightforward technical problem. Ground clutter at low altitude is dense and variable. The ability to distinguish a drone flying at 200 metres from weather returns, terrain features, and electronic noise is what separates a capable AEW system from an expensive radar platform.

The Force Multiplication Calculus

An airborne early warning platform does not shoot anything down. Its value lies in compressing decision cycles across the joint force. Netra fuses data from its primary radar, secondary surveillance radar, and ESM suite. She transmits a real-time tactical picture via secure data links to IAF fighters, surface-to-air missile batteries, and the Integrated Air Command and Control System. A pilot, upon receiving that picture, knows where the threat is, what it is, and which other friendly assets are addressing it before the threat enters his own sensor range. An Akash battery operator is cued to an incoming cruise missile while it is still 40 kilometres away, rather than learning of it from the engagement radar at 10km.

This compression of the sensor-to-shooter timeline is the operative measure of Netra’s contribution. In a high-tempo, multi-axis conflict, the difference between a twelve-minute warning and a four-minute warning is the difference between a coordinated intercept and a reactive scramble. FOC gives the IAF assurance that Netra will perform this function at full capacity, without degradation due to developmental limitations, during sustained combat operations.

The Expansion Imperative

India currently operates three Netra aircraft. Against a two-front operational requirement spanning the northern and western theatres simultaneously, three platforms represent a starting point, not a final solution. Sustained AEW coverage over two active fronts demands continuous on-station presence, which in turn demands rotation cycles and adequate reserve. Three aircraft cannot credibly provide this. The FOC must therefore be viewed as the formal beginning of a programme of scale.

Achieving FOC for the Mk-1 accelerates the case for funding and fielding these variants. It demonstrates to the defence acquisition apparatus that DRDO can deliver a complex, software-intensive, operationally demanding platform to the IAF’s qualitative requirements. The developmental pathway is defined. The Netra Mk-1A incorporates enhanced processing for low-observable target detection. The Mk-2, proposed on the Airbus A321 platform, would carry a larger radar array with 300 to 360-degree coverage, substantially increasing both the surveillance footprint and the battle management capacity of each airborne asset.

 

The Indigenisation Dividend

India’s defence self-reliance agenda has produced a mixed record. In some domains, the trajectory has been positive even when timelines have slipped. In others, dependence on imported platforms has persisted despite stated policy intent. Netra’s FOC represents a genuine indigenisation success in one of the most technically demanding categories of military aviation. These include integration of complex sensor fusion, real-time data processing, and secure communications in an airborne environment. The significance extends beyond the platform itself. The Centre for Airborne Systems has, over two decades, built the engineering and systems integration competence required to deliver and sustain an AEW capability.

 

Concluding Thoughts

The FOC for Netra is strategically significant for three reasons. First, it removes the last formal constraints on the full operational deployment of an indigenous airborne early warning platform. Second, it positions India to accelerate the Mk-1A and Mk-2 variants at a moment when the regional threat environment makes expanded AEW capacity an operational necessity rather than a procurement aspiration. Third, it validates the DRDO-industry pathway for delivering advanced airborne systems and strengthens the argument for funding the next generation of indigenous surveillance and battle management platforms.

Modern air power is, at its core, an information contest. The side that sees first, identifies first, and coordinates first holds the initiative. Netra, fully cleared and operationally deployed, moves India measurably closer to holding that initiative over the contested airspace that will define any future conflict with regional adversaries.

 

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Disclaimer:

Information and data included in the blog are for educational & non-commercial purposes only and have been carefully adapted, excerpted, or edited from reliable and accurate sources. All copyrighted material belongs to the respective owners and is provided only for wider dissemination.

 

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