COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT — THE NEXT EVOLUTION IN AIR WARFARE
Poised to change modern air combat in the decades to come, the Collaborative Combat Aircraft represents a fundamental shift in how nations will deploy robotic air assets in contested skies. By combining human pilots with AI-enabled uncrewed agents, the early adopters will be able to project cutting edge technologies in a world where adversaries are quickly catching up. At the same time, this next era of air combat is still taking shape. Budgets are evolving, technology is pushing boundaries, and questions about autonomy and related trust and ethical usage are sparking the right debates. But one thing is certain: CCAs have the potential to redefine what an air force looks like, and how it wins the fight for the command of the skies in the next decade.
Imagine a pair of sleek, stealthy aircraft flying high over the Himalayan horizon in the not so distant future. As you zoom in close, you astonishingly realise there’s no pilot in the cockpit. The pair of robotic platforms calmly weave invisible patterns, dancing to the tune of an unknown composer. Only the trained eye can relate this as tactical manoeuvring against a beyond visual range (BVR) adversary. This carries on for a while, till such time that a sleek Tejas fighter jet zooms in and joins up with the uncrewed platforms in a perfect finale to the composition. As the two robotic jets tuck in obediently behind the Tejas, you realise that you are witnessing a first-hand manifestation of manned and unmanned teaming (MUM-T), and the two uncrewed systems are none other than the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) CATS-Warrior platforms. Warrior defines the emerging breed of uncrewed air combatants widely termed as ‘Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA)’, and in some geographies, as the ‘Loyal Wingman.’ The CCAs are the byproducts of a rapidly developing air warfare doctrine in the age of Industry 5.0. They’re designed to fly alongside traditional 4/4.5/5th fighters, taking on some of the toughest missions and making sure they stand as a barrier of first contact between the home team and the opposition for a variety of operational needs. The under development HAL Warrior epitomises disruptive trajectories of CCA development across the world, where the United States is the global leader. While the definitive operational deployment of these futuristic platforms is still some years away, the one thing which is obvious is that CCAs are poised to change modern air combat as we know it.
The Operational Advantage
For decades, the world has pictured fighter jets dominating the discourse on the command of the skies, and evolution in air warfare doctrine. But with the advent of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the airpowers across the world are changing that narrative, registering the next evolution in Air Warfare. Expanding on the definition of the CCA — Collaborative Combat Aircraft are advanced, autonomous, or semi-autonomous uncrewed systems engineered to work in tandem with traditional manned aircraft such as fighter jets, bombers and/or C2 assets; as well as terrestrial entities. These air vehicles are equipped with sense & perception sensors, collaborative autonomy, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), secure data links and operational payloads; enabling them to perform a wide variety of roles — from reconnaissance and electronic warfare, to strike missions and air defence suppression; and as air to air combat vectors equipped with Air-to-Air Missiles. CCAs are mostly powered by jet engines and can be deployed solo or in a swarm. Unlike traditional drones, which often operate independently or under direct human control, CCAs are designed to collaborate with other CCA/ UAVs and with human pilots in a dynamic manned unmanned teaming (MUM-T) and wider autonomy paradigm.
In the days ahead, pilots would command a CCA swarm to scout ahead, jam enemy radars, or engage hostile targets, keeping their aircraft out of the harm’s way while they focuses on higher-level decision-making of the developing air situation. This complex set of manoeuvres and tactical routines will be implemented thorough a ‘system of systems’ philosophy.
Today’s 4/4.5/5th Gen manned platforms are ‘exquisite, expensive and available in fewer numbers’ to create a widespread impact. Recent conflicts reinforce the emergence of Anti-Access and Area Denial (A2AD) layered offence/ defence philosophies, which imposes caution on use of these platforms, especially the ability to generate a sizeable ‘mass’ and ‘air launched effects’ (ALEs) to penetrate the A2AD layers without suffering disproportionate attrition.
Reintroducing the philosophy of affordable and de-centralised ‘combat mass’, CCAs will be able to disaggregate sensors and payloads across dispersed, less ‘exquisite’ vehicle types within the same swarm.
Thus CCAs increase the density of sensors, weapons, and other mission systems that can be projected in depth inside contested areas. CCAs can enable non-stealthy fighters and bombers to contribute to the highly contested air superiority fight as a team. They can prove their lethality by helping to close sensor — weapon range gaps and achieve first look/ first shoot advantage.
CCA are expected be most effective when utilised as part of kill meshes to increase survivability & lethality against enemy assets. Kill meshes would increase options for manned fighters to detect, avoid, and counter enemy defences in 360-degree threat environments. Creating a more heterogeneous force mix, sharing sensing, data links, and other functions across meshes would complicate an enemy’s ability to identify nodes and other targets. Employing large numbers of lower cost CCA could help deplete enemy air defences, impose costs, open the path to follow-on crewed and uncrewed force vectors. Imagine the advantage of an entire fighter squadron, where only one or two aircraft have human pilots, and the rest are CCAs. They seamlessly follow commands, thanks to AI-driven data links, delivering the Air Force’s combat punch to achieve air superiority in hostile space. Post consolidation of this phase of development, the next generation CCA platforms will have versions which will be carried into the theatre of combat under the wings of manned fighter/ larger CCA types. These will present advantages towards on use demand and deployment, and greater endurance in the operational zone.
Tackling Old Problems with New Ideas
It’s interesting to watch where the USAF, the current CCA development champion is headed in this vertical. The US DOD realises that Aircraft are expensive to develop, buy, and operate. Since the 1990s, the USAF fleet has decreased, in part because of those costs. Former Air Force Secretary Kendall has stated CCAs would cost roughly one-third the price of crewed fighters. Kendall added that there is a “planning assumption” of 1,000 CCAs, a number derived by projecting the use of two CCAs for each of 500 advanced fighters. CCAs are part of the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, which will also include a 6th Gen crewed fighter platform, sensors, weapons, and more.
The USAF is envisioning that training on CCAs would occur virtually, so the airframes themselves would fly less, potentially leading to lower maintenance and sustainment costs. The Air Force would purchase them in quantities large enough to augment its fleet. CCAs arrive just as China’s aerospace & defence industry is on a massive research & rearmament up drive, where its contribution to the anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategies — think long-range missiles and sophisticated air defence — are challenging the US air superiority.
By integrating CCAs with crewed fighters, the USAF believes it can create a larger, more flexible, and more obscure force for adversaries to deal with, helping in A2AD penetration methodologies.
Further, in line with a new approach called agile combat employment (ACE), the USAF wants to disperse and scatter forces across multiple small bases instead of relying on large, centralized locations which are under threat from Chinese long range precision strike complexes. CCAs in dispersed locations will add sensors, weapons, and enough options to deploy, which will keep potential adversaries guessing. The Commander of Air Combat Command General Kenneth S. Wilsbach sums it well -“You can create mass, and so many targets out in the battlespace that your adversary will have to worry about … is that something that I have to use some munitions on?”
Foundation Development in the United States
The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the USAF, and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) have undertaken numerous efforts to develop and test single agent and collaborative autonomy, software, and modular upgradable platforms during the past decade. What is significant to note is that the USAF has sought to develop a pipeline of technologies feeding into the CCA. These efforts helped to refine underlying technologies such as digital engineering, agile software, and open mission systems. Programs like DARPA’s ACE combat and AFRL’s Skyborg have delivered the building block for the same.
The USAF has dedicated experimental test units working on developing the best ways to use CCAs, including using its X-62 VISTA fleet to experiment with the autonomy software undergirding CCAs. Further, six F-16s out of Eglin Air Force Base are testing AI agents that ride along with their human counterparts. The goal is to use these aircraft in a variety of test operations to gather useful data on manned-unmanned-teaming concepts while simultaneously helping to foster higher levels of trust between pilots and AI “agents.”
In end 2020 General Atomics revealed that it conducted a semi-autonomous flight test involving one of its stealthy Avenger drones equipped with an Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) “autonomy engine” originally developed by DARPA and now managed by the US Navy. The unmanned aircraft worked together with five other simulated Avengers to conduct a mock search for aerial threats in a designated area. During the demonstration, a human operator instructed the Avenger and its five virtual wingmen to carry out the aerial search mission, which they then performed autonomously. The CODE ‘engine’ flew the physical Avenger drone for more than two hours. Using collaborative autonomy, CODE-enabled unmanned aircraft would find targets and engage them as appropriate under established rules of engagement in denied environment, leverage nearby CODE-equipped systems with minimal supervision, and adapt to dynamic situations such as attrition of friendly forces or the emergence of unanticipated threats. The demonstration also supported the GA-ASI work for the Air Force’s Skyborg program at that time.
General Atomics has further revealed that its jet-powered MQ-20 Avenger drone, equipped with USG provided autonomy software, took part in the 2025 Orange Flag large force test exercise. This is the latest milestone for the Avenger, which has been heavily involved in the testing of different artificial-intelligence-driven autonomy systems for several years now. An important part of the demonstration was to prove that the MQ-20 and other GA-ASI drones — can be rapidly reconfigured from using company-written software to government-provided or other vendors’ software as required.
The Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, in operation since 2019, was the world’s first CCA concept to start autonomy & human machine teaming trials with AFRL under the Skyborg initiative, and has demonstrated its advanced electronic attack capabilities by autonomously detecting, identifying, and geolocating multiple targets of interest. In one of the demos, the aircraft successfully transmitted target track coordinates to collaborative assets and executed non-kinetic electronic attack (EA) effects against multiple emitters. The XQ-58A Valkyrie offers high performance, runway-independent tactical UAV capabilities, including long-range flights at high-subsonic speeds, operational flexibility, and affordability for various US DOD applications.
The USAF has also been experimenting with ‘air-launched’ Kratos UTAP-22 Mako low-cost CCA concept. Kratos describes the UTAP-22 as an “unmanned aircraft capable of collaborative operations with manned assets in contested environments,” a clear CCA role. The drone is primarily intended to operate semi-autonomously based on instructions from another aircraft with an actual pilot in it. Beyond their primary CCA mission, the company has also demonstrated the ability for multiple Makos to work together cooperatively and independently.
The DARPA ‘Longshot’ is another ‘air launched’ CCA program which will be able to deploy CCAs at the forward edge of the air battle, where these drones will be able to engage in offensive air-to-air scenarios, while operating with manned elements as part of a kill mesh. The LongShot program aims to revolutionize air combat, presenting a paradigm shift in the tactics and capabilities of aerial warfare. According to DARPA, the agency seeks to develop an air vehicle that can be deployed from existing fighter jets or bombers, and can carry air-to-air missiles (AAMs) to effectively engage multiple adversary air threats at longer ranges.
In January 2024, the USAF awarded initial contracts to five companies to design and build CCAs: Anduril, Boeing, GA-ASI, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. In April 2024, the Air Force announced that two of those companies — Anduril, and GA-ASI — won Increment 1 contracts to build production-representative test articles. Anduril made headlines when it acquired Blue Force Technologies, the developer of a large uncrewed aircraft called Fury.
The Fury is now slated for a makeover, evolving into a high-performance, multi-mission aircraft under Anduril’s guidance. The company plans to pair Fury with its ‘Lattice’ intelligence software suite — an open system that can tie together multiple sensors and domains.
Meanwhile, General Atomics is banking on its XQ-67A Gambit test platform, which first flew in early 2024. It focuses on endurance, rather than raw speed or manoeuvrability. In fact, GA-ASI’s leaders say they’ve already started production, hinting at the pace of innovation taking place behind the scenes. The Gambit will be a family of platforms built around a common core architecture.
The USAF anticipates ordering more than 100 CCAs as part of Increment 1 program award in the next five years. The vendors not selected would still be eligible to compete for Increment 1 production contracts and future increments. The preliminary work has started on Increment 2. The USAF intends to work with more than 20 industry partners, including those not initially selected for Increment 1, and is additionally exploring international partnerships. The Increment 2 award could be a more complicated platform that incorporates stealth technologies.
Lockheed Martin is also developing its family of low cost CCA solutions. Lockheed Martin recently announced that it successfully demonstrated the capability to command drones with a MUM-T architecture resident on board an F-35 in 2024. The company initially conducted tests with a human controller in an L-39 Albatros jet using a touchscreen interface to command two L-29 Delfin jets, equipped with AI-enabled flight technology acting as surrogate drones, to engage simulated enemy fighters.
Meanwhile, The Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie has on many occasions already flown besides the F-22 and F-35 fighters of the USAF and the US Marine Corps to chart out teaming paradigms in various scenarios. It has also showcased drop of air launched drones and carriage of armament like the small diameter bomb (SDB). Since then, Kratos has been fine tuning the XQ-58 towards a more acceptable CCA candidature. In 2024, while showcasing the XQ-58A Valkyrie’s ability to fly alongside two F-35 aircraft and deliver an integrated electronic attack capability during a live flight test event, the Valkyrie contributed towards the completion of the initial phase of the US Marine Corps’ Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer — Portfolio (PAACK-P) program on 2 April 2024, with a successful demonstration by its Unmanned Systems Division at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.
The F-35 can command and control up to 8 CCAs under its existing capability.
Update — 03 March 2025 — The USAF has officially accorded the designation for the Increment 1 platforms. The GA-ASI platform is designated the YFQ — 42A and the Anduril platform is designated the YFQ — 44A. The assigned designations (YFQ-42A and YFQ-43A) indicate prototypes (as shown by the ‘Y’ status) of UAVs (as denoted by the ‘Q’ code) with the intended role as a fighter (indicated by the ‘F’).
Development trajectory across Rest of the World
In Europe, the CCA development by several European nations is primarily focused on the “Future Combat Air System (FCAS)” program, which aims to create a network of manned and unmanned aircraft capable of seamlessly collaborating in combat operations, utilizing advanced technologies like AI and big data for enhanced situational awareness and decision-making. Key players in the FCAS project include France, Germany and Spain. FCAS will be built around a core Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS). In this system of systems, piloted New Generation Fighters will work together the newly unveiled Airbus CCA design, and with Unmanned Remote Carriers — all connected to other systems in space, in the air, on the ground, at sea and in cyberspace via a data cloud called the “Combat Cloud.” These connected platforms will act as sensors, effectors and C2 nodes, enabling agile decision making and working together within an open, scalable, service oriented architecture that allows the inclusion of future platforms and technologies.
FCAS capabilities will roll out incrementally, starting with enhanced situational awareness in the late 2020s and progressing to manned-unmanned teaming in the early 2030s. Upgraded fighters such as the Eurofighter will team with first-generation Wingman, leading to the full FCAS vision by 2040 with the NGWS.
UK, Italy and Japan are developing CCA capabilities around the multi-national Global Combat Aircraft Program. The GCAP envisions a swarm of Loyal Wingman/ CCA class aircraft being interoperable with the UK Tempest 6th Gen fighter aircraft.
CCA designs from BAE Systems, Leonardo and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have emerged centred around this requirement which focuses on creation of a crewed and uncrewed platform based connected and dynamic combat mass to saturate and penetrate enemy defences.
Australia has developed the Boeing MQ-28A ‘Ghost Bat’ Loyal Wingman, which is touted as a pathfinder for integration of autonomous systems and AI to create smart human-machine teams. It is the result of a collaboration between Australian Air Force and Boeing Australia. The Ghost Bat will be Boeing’s entry to the USAF’s CCA programme in the United States.
In December 2024, the Swedish firm Saab presented concepts for a potential new-generation crewed fighter and a series of CCA drones intended to work alongside it. With a long history of domestic combat aircraft development, a sixth-generation fighter and complementary stealthy drones make sense for Sweden, although there are big questions about whether this is a realistic prospect without joining forces with other countries.
Turkey is prototyping a CCA based on the Baykar Kizilelma (Red Apple). It is being designed to work alongside the Turkish KAAN 5th Gen manned fighter jet, providing additional situational awareness, carrying out specific tasks like electronic warfare, and potentially engaging enemy targets under the command of the manned aircraft. The Kizilelma is under flight testing and has a maximum take off weight (MTOW) of 6,000 kilograms, with 1,500 kg of weight available for the payload. According to data shared by the company, the Kızılelma will have an operational altitude of 10,000 meters AMSL.
South Korea’s KAI is involved in development of the KUS-FS, a Loyal Wingman class low RCS UCAV designated to operate with the locally developed 4.5/5th Gen KF-21 Boramae and the FA-50 fighter aircraft. It is still at a conceptual stage and will only be operational towards the end of the decade. The Koreans have displayed a very clear vision of absorbing CCAs in their Next Generation Air Combat System.
The Russian Sukhoi bureau is developing the S-70 Okhotnik-B, also referred to as Hunter-B, which is a Russian UCAV being transitioned into a CCA concept around the development of the 5th Gen Su-57 platform. The concept relies on MUM-T to add robotic layers tied to the Su-57 and exploit the CCA concept at a tactical level. On 5 October 2024, a S-70 was shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Russian Su-57, near Kostiantynivka, in Ukraine. The drone apparently lost contact with its ground control and flew in the direction of Ukrainian-controlled territory. By the time attempts to regain control had been abandoned, the drone had crossed the front line into Ukraine and, subsequently, the Russian Su-57 deliberately shot it down. The loss of link may have been due the Ukrainian EW effort in the region.
Russia will continue developing the S-70 in the days ahead, albeit at a reduced pace, limited by sanctions and tech gaps.
China’s “intelligentized warfare” doctrine emphasizes AI, autonomy, and networked systems to counter U.S. military advantages in the Indo-Pacific. Collaborative drones and CCAs are a key component of this strategy and have started appearing in Chinese whitepapers on air warfare. While China has not officially confirmed a program named “collaborative combat aircraft,” its investment in stealth UAVs, AI, and swarm technology suggests active development of systems analogous to the Loyal Wingman concept. These platforms aim to enhance the lethality and survivability of China’s 5th-gen fighters like the J-20 in high-threat scenarios. With the unveiling of two 5+/6th Gen fighters in Dec 2024, it can safely be assumed that China is testing a series of CCA concepts out of the public eye to support deployment of its next generation fighters. The CH — 7 and the GJ-11 “Sharp Sword” Stealth UAV will be amongst them; which are flying-wing stealth combat drones, capable of internal weapons carriage. These will operate alongside stealth fighters like the J-20 5th Gen and the recently unveiled J-36 and J-50 (?) next generation platforms for penetrating enemy air defences and conducting strikes on US assets in the Indo — Pacific region.
The FH-97 Loyal Wingman unveiled at the 2022 Zhuhai Airshow resembles the U.S. Skyborg XQ-58A Valkyrie. It features AI-driven swarm coordination, air-to-air missile capabilities, and modular payloads and is designed to act as a sensor node/ weapons carrier for manned fighters.
Another concept is the AVIC ‘Dark Sword’ (An Jian), a rumoured high-speed, stealthy CCA under development with potential air-combat capabilities. Its status remains unclear beyond ground mock ups and a purported grainy image of a landing demonstrator; but it highlights China’s interest in futuristic AI-driven combat drones for advanced air capabilities, and paired technologies with manned elements.
What is mind boggling to see is the deep research and iterative design of multiple unmanned aviation prototypes towards development of stealthy UCAV/ CCA/ Loyal Wingman configurations in China. The Chinese science and technology has moved beyond the ‘reverse engineering’ space, into an ‘active innovation’ phase. This has been made possible by implementation of a crystal clear vision of identifying and mating operational needs, with core scientific and engineering output. China stands poised to be a worthy challenger to the domination of the United States in this vertical, and has the motivation, technical resources and financial muscle to execute complex aerospace projects.
From Interaction, to Automation; to Challenges with higher echelons of Autonomy & AI
What is yet to be seen is how the CCAs will be controlled and what levels of autonomy may truly be available in the near term to support the Concept of Operations (ConOps). There is a lot of opinion amongst the Air Forces about the right way to go about doing this. On Human Machine Interface (HMI) protocols, the universal thought is that the fastest way to begin experimentation would be a tablet or a touch based interface in the cockpit, and most of the CCA Command & Control (C2) interfaces in manned cockpits are taking this route.
However effort will needed to integrate the HMI in a most intuitive and cognition friendly manner at the aircraft mission avionics level so as to not overload the pilot from his core job of flying the aircraft. These system architectures can only come out of clinical experiments on the subject. One such initial effort is operational in the F-35 cockpit, while futuristic concepts using Augmented/ Virtual Reality (AR/VR) are being explored with programs like the UK’s GCAP.
The inference on how much autonomy is enough for the CCA agent would ideally depend on what best result it is able to deliver in a teaming environment.
It will also be dependent on the quality of the data crunched to train and augment the AI algorithms and associated combat autonomy development processes, some of which may not be currently available in the real world.
Here besides real world testing effort, high fidelity simulation environments with training and experimentation of next generation autonomy and ConOps implementation for CCAs will help save effort, ambiguity and costs. Companies like ShieldAI, a global leader in on edge combat autonomy software, are developing the ‘Hivemind’ AI pilot and have participated in the USAF F-16 VISTA, the Kratos MQM-178 Firejet AI pilot demo, and the recent GA-ASI Avenger demonstrations during Orange Flag. Shield AI acquired Heron Systems Inc., the winner of the DARPA Alpha Dogfight trials in 2021. Fusing Heron systems capabilities with its Hivemind autonomy stack, Shield AI is pitching to be a premium AI pilot development partner for the USAF’s CCA hardware development OEMs.
A large part of the Hivemind dev work is done in synthetic environment, where basis validation of the workflow, transitional effort the real world scenarios happens.
Similar work is being done in India by NewSpace Research & Technologies (NRT), a cyber physical unmanned system start-up company . NRT is developing its Air Combat Intelligence Development (ACID) initiative to support the AI pilot needs of the Indian MOD. NRT demonstrated a consolidated synthetic Manned Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) workflow with a Mirage 2000 aircraft and a tablet based interface for command and control of autonomous uncrewed agents undertaking a variety of missions.
What is however emerging as a feedback from early CCA experiments is that at this juncture, an efficient automation process, with a lower level of autonomy and AI support, can still deliver the desired tactical result in a most useful manner. This will especially be pertinent with most nations emphasising on a human decision for key engagement decisions, including employment of weapons. It also understates the fact that the ability to create systems which can operate autonomously with missions in all regimes of operations, is something which is still maturing.
When we evaluate the trust and ethical behaviour of the resident intelligence on the robotic entity, the explainability of AI and trusted hard coded behaviour trumps the very advanced layers of autonomy which cannot be understood on how they take decisions. With a better grasp of evolving CCA doctrine, technology mapping and other fundamentals, a single manned fighter can control a ‘larger’ number of drones than previously thought with proven facets of automation, using less-sophisticated autonomous technology. Not only can pilots embed with a larger numbers of CCA drones, but they also won’t need drones with the most cutting-edge autonomy software to do it.
Reliance on novel and emergent behaviour using AI methods with unsupervised learning, will be limited to exclusive scenarios only, with the majority of actions like navigation, collaboration of agents, group combat tactics etcetera centred around playbook routines and behaviour trees, which are explainable.
Hence, what was clearly thought as the necessary requirement for a great amount of autonomy and a significant amount of artificial intelligence, and really, really complex algorithms, has with widespread virtual and real world workflow deployments turned out to be instead — ‘automation support, simple autonomy, simple algorithms, a little bit of AI sprinkled in.’ This has been verified to a great deal in the USAF autonomy experiments. The experiment teams have been able to decrease pilot workload to a degree where they can effectively utilize these capabilities. The USAF calls the development “probably the most exciting part” of the CCA program so far, because it opens up more options for how the Air Force can employ the current generation of drones. Complex behaviours can wait for ‘tomorrow’, mapped to the technology implementation trajectory of the future.
The CCA advantage for India
The Indian Air Force (IAF) faces a critical challenge with its dwindling fighter squadron strength (currently 30–32 squadrons against a sanctioned of 42). This shortage affects the IAF’s operational readiness given threats from China and Pakistan in a two front war scenario. Especially against China, the IAF is the first line of defence and offensive action over the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). With the IAF not being able to afford a doctrine that seeks to match the PLA aircraft-for-aircraft, a shortfall in Indian Air Force mission capacity will massively increases the risk for all Indian inter service joint force operations. No other service can bring enough combat air capacity to fill existing gaps.
The IAF must develop asymmetric capabilities and operating concepts that prevent PLAAF from achieving its campaign objectives against India utilising its operational mass.
Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and loyal wingman drones like India’s indigenous Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) CATS — Warrior program, could play a transformative role in mitigating this gap while modernizing the force and preserving force levels. “Mass” has long been a crucial theme behind the CCA program and pairing each manned fighter like the Rafale, Tejas MK2, or the 5th Gen AMCA with 2–3 low-cost CCAs will effectively multiply combat capacity without requiring more human pilots or expensive platforms.
CCAs provides an answer to China’s growing force size, and presents the PLAAF with a more complex targeting challenge against larger number of rival aircraft dispersed across the pan Indian region, thus reducing the IAF’s attrition in the highly contested environments.
CCAs are cheaper to produce and maintain than 4/5th Gen fighters. India’s Warrior program aims for a per-unit cost of USD 5 –10 million, compared to USD 60–100 million for a Rafale class manned platform.
At the same time, mass production of modular CCA platforms could offset the IAF’s squadron shortages much faster than either procuring foreign jets from outside India or expecting HAL, India’s lone aircraft manufacturer, to ramp up production capacity beyond what may be feasible.
The Indian Air Force is aware of this predicament and has supported HAL’s CAT — Warrior Unmanned Wingman development since some years now. HAL unveiled the Warrior concept as part of its futuristic Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) in February 2021 and has been steadily developing capabilities to design and scale up the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the prototype vehicle. HAL achieved a significant milestone in the programme with the successful completion of the engine ground run of a full-scale demonstrator ahead of Aero India 2025, where the current prototype is set to be unveiled. The Warrior will have a MTOW of 2100 kg and a top speed of 850 kmph, a max range of 800 km and an endurance of 90 min. It is currently powered by 2 x PTAE-7 turbojets locally manufactured by HAL. However it is likely to be powered by the Russian NPO Saturn AL-55 turbofan in the days ahead, which will give an increased performance threshold. The system envisages the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) as the “mothership” controlling a network of autonomous platforms, including the CATS-Warrior, which is a low-observable unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).
Over a period of time, the Warrior will be armed with the NG-CCM and the ASRAAM air to air missiles, the DRDO SAAW anti runway glide bomb, and the NRT ALFA-S swarm drone system.
HAL is carrying out the development of the unnamed flight stack of the Warrior on a surrogate Kiran MK2 technology testbed aircraft. The Optionally Manned Combat Aircraft (CATS-OMCA) will soon be undertaking its flight to prove the technologies and thus increase the CATS program TRL.
The OMCA in itself will be productised in an unmanned wingman role as it becomes technologically mature.
The Indian Navy recently selected NewSpace Research & Technologies Pvt Ltd (NRT) as its choice to develop the Naval Collaborative Combat Air Vehicle (N-CCAV) through the Indian MOD’s Innovation For Defence Excellence (iDEX) Aditi 2.0 challenge route. NRT will be pushing forward its Abhimanyu CCA under the N-CCAV mandate.
The Abhimanyu, which is a jet powered low RCS design, is expected to be a smaller & lighter drone as compared to HAL’s Warrior with a mandate to deliver human machine teaming missions with the Indian Navy’s Mig-29K and other suitable aircraft.
Its modular design can be adapted to perform a variety of roles, including surveillance, EW and kinetic attacks. Abhimanyu, which is designed to be cost effective and expendable, can be rapidly produced and deployed in large numbers to augment the existing fighter fleet of both the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. These connected platforms can act as sensors, effectors and C2 nodes, enabling agile decision making within an open, scalable, operations oriented architecture, which will allow inclusion of future platforms, technologies and ConOps.
Although currently a work in progress, the development of the Warrior and Abhimanyu CCAs by Indian companies is a milestone event for the UAV sector in India, with a clear intent to push for integration of CCAs into India’s larger Defence strategy — particularly in scenarios that demand rapid deployment and scalability of airborne uncrewed systems.
DRDO in India is engaged in development of the Ghatak UCAV, which will be utilised in the Loyal Wingman/ CCA roles. Project Ghatak was initiated as a successor to the 2009 AURA (Autonomous Unmanned Research Aircraft) programme at ADA. This has now been handed to Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO. The Ghatak UCAV will have an internal weapons bay for carrying missiles, bombs and precision-guided munitions. Its design will be based on a flying-wing configurationt, and will be powered by the indigenously developed Kaveri turbofan engine. In 2011, DRDO’s Chief Controller of RD&, Dr Prahlada said, “the Ghatak will have on-board mission computers, data links, fire control radars, IFF, and collision avoidance systems. These will be highly intelligent drones”. He also added that “the UCAV will be capable of flying at altitudes of 30,000 ft and weighing less than 15 tonnes. It will have rail-launching and an internal weapons carraige bay for missiles, bombs and PGMs.
On 15 December 2023, ADE successfully demonstrated the flight trial of first sub scale Stealth Wing Flying Testbed (SWiFT) prototype at Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range. The demonstration was towards maturing the TRL for development of the Ghatak technologies. This marked the seventh flight trial of the platform’s various developmental configurations following its debut flight in 2022.
The ADE and DRDO are prepared to start building a full-scale model of the Ghatak stealth UCAV after funds are allocated for the Ghatak program by the Indian MOD.
The MOD, Services, DRDO and its associated labs, along with HAL and the industry partners need to put in synergised efforts to develop and test the required combat autonomy and AI implementations, as well as propose a modular spiral/ upgradable route for development of critical tech like aero engines. This needs to be backed with a suitable budget and a clear definition of the procurement path; much in the way the US eco system has supported the CCA development. This will catalyse and consolidate the requiste thrust needed to scale the development of an eco system for this genre of platforms in India.
It should be well understood that unmanned wingmen and CCAs are not a replacement for manned fighters,but a strategic force multiplier that can help the IAF offset squadron shortages, modernize cost-effectively, and counter peer adversaries like China. By prioritizing indigenous programs like Warrior and Abhimanyu which foster AI innovation in air combat effects, India can bridge its capability gap while positioning itself as a leader in autonomous air combat technologies. Hence the Indian MOD needs to assess CCA design and cost trade-offs to define high fidelity requirements, and a persistent appetite to support this initiative. The key lies in balancing urgency with technological pragmatism, supported by a dedicated budget and end user mandate.
The Warrior, Abhimanyu and the Ghatak programs underscore India’s ambition to modernize its air operations with cutting-edge homegrown sovereign hardware; while balancing affordability and strategic autonomy as a nation.
Defining a New Chapter in Air Power
As the airpowers across the globe gear up to field these unmanned teammates, it’s clear that the Collaborative Combat Aircraft is more than just a showpiece on the drawing board.
With fangs bared, CCAs represent a fundamental shift in how nations will project power in contested skies. By combining human pilots with AI-enabled agents, the early adopters will be able to project cutting edge technologies in a world where adversaries are quickly catching up.
This next era of air combat is still taking shape. Budgets will evolve, technology will push boundaries, and questions about autonomy, and related trust and ethical usage will spark debates. But one thing is certain: CCAs have the potential to redefine what an air force looks like — and how it wins the fight for the command of the skies in the next decade.
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Author- Sameer Joshi is an Ex IAF Mirage 2000 fighter pilot who writes on Aerospace & Defence topics
Photo Credits to Original Online uploads and OEM Resources
Author has refered to original online available source material from Mitchels Institute, GA-ASI, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Airbus, BAE Systems, KAI, Anduril, Shield AI, HAL, Saab, Baykar, Sukhoi, MHI, Leonardo, CASIC, AVIC, CAPS India, ADE (DRDO) and Indian MOD’s iDEX
