Big Ideas, Small Progress

Ghazala Wahab

For all the humming in the sky, the biggest challenge in the development of intelligent unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to accompany manned fighters in collaborative combat is the absence of validation of even remotely controlled armed drones against a peer adversary, forget autonomous vehicles. Until now most of the operational employment of armed or killer drones, from the Caucasus to West Asia, has been against a technologically inferior adversary with little to no air defence and anti-drone capabilities, barring sporadic attacks on Russia. Consequently, the learning from experience, or data to fuel the development of intelligent drones have been limited.

Warrior model behind AMCA model

Even though the concept of manned-unmanned teaming or collaborative combat first emerged in the early years of 2000s, the clarity about what would be a leap of faith came in only by the middle of the next decade—collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) or the unmanned aircraft, intelligent enough to operate just as manned aircraft. This implies that CCA should be able to communicate with manned aircraft in a subordinate role and it should have battlefield survivability to the extent that it survives even when the manned aircraft doesn’t. Hence, the CCA would not be a weapon but a vector, which would perform a mission and return to the base with or without the manned fighter. To further emphasise its role, the Americans termed the CCA, a loyal wingman. Until now most of the operationally employed unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) have been either kamikaze or dispensable.

While there are ethical questions about how much intelligence and consequently, autonomy the CCA should have, the immediate priority is validation of an unmanned fighter or UCAV which can operate autonomously and in collaboration with a manned fighter, matching not only its speed but capabilities too. If claims are to be believed, then in October 2024, Türkiye became the first country to fly a UCAV, Anka-3, developed by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), controlled not remotely but by a flying fighter. Quoting a Turkish X account, Belgian portal Army Recognition reported this development calling it a milestone. However, neither TAI nor any other news portal reported this flight. Even Army Recognition did not share details about the fighter which controlled the UCAV and what mission was carried out by the latter. Nevertheless, TAI describes Anka-3 as a next generation stealth UCAV with speed of Mach 0.7, powered as it is by a turbofan engine, and has endurance of up to 10 hours. Capable of operating at 40,000 feet, it can carry about seven tons.

Whatever be the capabilities of Anka-3, the mere presence of a superior unmanned platform doesn’t automatically lead to it becoming an autonomous or intelligent accompanist to a manned fighter. The United States (US), China and Israel already operate advanced semi-autonomous drones and are working on high-speed, long endurance systems with