Man-Machine Teams

Smruti D

Briefing the press about HAL’s ongoing programmes at Aero India 2021, the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd Chairman and Managing Director, R. Madhavan spoke about the ‘CATS-warrior’ programme. CATS stands for Combined Air Teaming System. He said that HAL will be ready to fly it in four-five years. HAL had invested about Rs 400 crore in the project, deeming it to be the ‘future of HAL’.

Boeing Loyal Wingman and HAL-made Combined Air Teaming System (CATS)

The CATS programme is an example of Manned and Unmanned Teaming (MUMT), wherein the manned jet will remain inside the territory and the CATS warriors, autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles, will fly ahead and hit the target nearly 700 kms away. The unmanned jet will carry a set of missiles for air and ground attack.

“We will be ready to fly it in four-five years’ time and we have budgeted Rs 400 crore of our own money for the projects. We are also exploring integrating CATS with Tejas and the Jaguar,” added Madhavan.

The warrior will be controlled by pilots flying in the manned systems that will stay behind. MUMT systems enable the amalgamation of the human brain, which can apply decision making and intuition depending on the situation, coupled with the lethality and precision that a machine offers. The pilot in the manned aircraft can see the situation and terrain on the ground through the imagery being communicated by the warrior aircraft, which is essentially a drone.

While MUMT, as a technology is applicable across land, sea and air domains, work is extensively being put into the air domain currently in India. The United States Army Aviation Centre (USAACE) described MUMT as, “the synchronised employment of soldier, manned and unmanned air and ground vehicles, robotics and sensors to achieve situational understanding, greater lethality and improved survivability.” It is through ‘sophisticated data links’ that MUM-T connects the manned platforms with UAS at different levels of interoperability.

Boeing

World over, different countries and defence manufacturers have been exploring the MUMT technology. In February last yea