U.S. Boosts Development of AI Unmanned Fighter Jets to Check China – Part 3

In addition, the U.S., Australia, China, and Japan are actively pursuing the development of stealth unmanned combat aircraft. However, the reality is that much of the stealth unmanned combat aircraft development in the UK, France, Russia, China, and Japan, excluding the U.S. and Australia, is shrouded in mystery. Even a part of it has not been disclosed yet. It is the common opinion of experts that there is no technical evolution. For example, the UK, France, Germany, and Russia have been conducting research since the early 2000s. Still, the plans have either been halted at the prototype production stage or only present abstract goals of actual deployment in the 2030s.

The Australian Air Force started the Airpower Teaming System project earlier than the U.S. It announced it in February 2019. The Australian Air Force plans to introduce unmanned aircraft that can fly up to 3,200km and perform combat missions with sensors and weapons mounted on it, having 12m in length, yet under the aircraft price of nearly a million dollars. Kratos first participated in this project as a partner with Boeing Australia and proposed XQ-58A. The project is still ongoing.

The stealth unmanned combat aircraft being developed by China has been circulating on the Internet and elsewhere since 2008. The Chinese government has not yet released any specific development plans or performance, perhaps due to a lack of technical confidence. However, China did unveil the Anjian UAV, an unmanned aircraft of about 10m in length, in mid-2018.

Unveiling of China’s Anjian UAV, Unmanned Aircraft, in 2018

Japan has been pushing to develop “Wingman” unmanned aircraft, which has a unique concept and is named the “combat support unmanned aircraft project, unveiled through the next-generation technology development plan of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force in 2016. In particular, Japan plans to integrate the “Royal Wingman” concept into the next-generation fighter (F-3), which is being developed as a replacement for the F-2. However, it is still in the research and development stage due to budget constraints.

The Korean Air Force is also challenged to have an MUM-T system. The MUM-T system that the Air Force envisions is a method in which 1~2 manned fighters control 4~8 unmanned fighters equipped with AI and performs operations as a formation. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and the Korean Air Force are pushing for an improvement in the performance of the Korean fighter KF-21 Boramae. By 2040, the goal is to secure the MUM-T system capability, where KF-21 conducts joint operations with unmanned combat aircraft. For this, KAI decided to invest $77 million in developing core technologies for the next-generation aerial combat system, including AI unmanned combat aircraft, last February.

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To read Part 2…