The aircraft drawing crowds at last week’s Berlin airshow was not the one with a pilot in it. The “loyal wingman,” an uncrewed jet built to fly beside a manned fighter and carry the extra sensors, jammers, and weapons the fighter cannot, has become Europe’s defence obsession, and four companies turned up to sell it.
Airbus, Boeing, Helsing, and General Atomics each brought a version of the same idea to Germany’s military and the watching procurement officials of its neighbours.
The premise is consistent across all of them: pair a small number of expensive crewed jets with a larger number of cheaper autonomous aircraft, let the drones absorb the risk on air-to-air, air-to-ground, and electronic-warfare missions, and multiply what a single pilot can do.
The war in Ukraine, where drones and electronic warfare have reshaped the battlefield faster than any doctrine anticipated, is the argument behind the whole category.
Airbus made the loudest entrance, unveiling its U760 Ravenstorm, an uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighters such as the Eurofighter Typhoon.
