DUBAI—A future vision of crewed and uncrewed combat aircraft teaming together on real combat missions is not likely to be realized for up to two decades, a top Indian Air Force (IAF) official said Nov. 12 here.
In 2021, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) revealed a sweeping concept for a multilayer family of autonomous aircraft designed to team up with the Indian Air Force’s crewed aircraft.
Air Marshal Radhakrishnan Radhish, the air officer commanding-in-chief of the Indian Air Force’s Training Command, presented HAL’s Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) vision to the Dubai International Air Chiefs’ Conference.
But Radhish clarified that the CATS concept vision is being driven by India’s defense industry, with Air Force officials monitoring as progress is made.
“Here is one case where most likely the industry is pushing hard, and the Air Force is waiting and watching as to what is this,” Radhish said.
A realistic timeline for introducing the CATS vision with multiple uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) teaming with piloted Indian fighters is at least 10-20 years, he added.
The CATS concept includes an air-launched Warrior UAS that can be recovered, an air-launched Hunter class of cruise missiles and a category of Air Launched Flexible Asset swarming systems.
HAL has also conceived an Infinity series of CATS, including solar- and turbofan-powered high altitude pseudo-satellite vehicles to operate for long periods at altitudes of more than 60,000 ft.
