Europe’s 6th gen fighter jets to gain muscle with AI-powered drone wingmen

Artificial intelligence (AI) could play a vital role in the Future Combat Air System being developed by the consortium of Germany, France, Spain – which Belgium has joined as an observer.

The FCAS is an effort by the European countries to field a number of fighter jets and drones by 2040.

The consortium also has a goal of getting the first feasible demonstrator airborne by the end of 2030.

According to a report, AI is playing a critical role in the development of the various systems under the FCAS program, and it will also impact the way in which the final aircraft operates and how its pilots will function.

Europe’s FCAS program and role of AI

One of the key differentiators of the FCAS is that the platform’s main aircraft will use drone wingmen to suit various purposes.

The drone wingmen can take on various responsibilities, gathering data, adding to the firepower capabilities of the warfighter, among others. These wingmen, according to the companies behind the project, will need to have some autonomous decision making capabilities to lessen the burden on pilots.

A report in Defense News states that building such type of AI will be crucial to the success of the FCAS project as a whole.

The report further goes on to quote Onur Deniz, the CEO of NeuralAgent company which has been charged with ensuring the data exchange process remains constant in the FCAS platform’s aircraft and drones.

According to Deniz, they are taking an approach which will allow the drone wingmen to take autonomous decisions on their own, rather than taking it from a centralized command. Moreover, they will also be able to continuously relay data with their peers and command center.

The company has also run simulation tests with drone wingmen using this approach and it has shown very positive results, with 95% success in war-like situations.

“By the end of 2025, the software will be ready for integration into existing hardware – legacy systems, at first,” Deniz says according to the report.

The program and its final goals

According to Airbus , FCAS will be centered around a core Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS). In this “system of systems,” piloted New Generation Fighters will work together 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.”

The FCAS is one more step towards the goal of achieving full collaborative combat by 2040, which can replace military systems like Rafale and Eurofighter.

Airbus says that an incremental roll-out of FCAS capabilities is planned by implementing initial situational awareness across platform capabilities in the mid-2020s.

“This could be followed in the 2030s by manned-unmanned teaming between upgraded existing fighters – such as the Eurofighter Long Term Evolution (LTE) with an improved cockpit and connectivity, new sensors and weapons – and first-generation Remote Carriers prior to achieving the full FCAS vision in 2040 with the Next Generation Weapon System as its core.”

Remote carriers will be released from transport aircraft like Airbus’ A400M to aid the manned aircraft which will play the central role.

However, the remote carriers will function with a high level of autonomy and for this AI is going to be a key factor.