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, An