Saab Details Plans For Future Fighter Tech Demonstrators

Swedish defense group Saab has provided the first details of the future fighter technology demonstrators it is building. Results from trials conducted with them will support the Swedish government in its upcoming decision on what the nation’s airpower will look like beyond the Gripen E that is currently entering service.

The briefing took place on August 21 on the eve of the Swedish air force’s 100th anniversary airshow at Malmen air base near Linköping. Saab took the opportunity to display a full-scale mock-up of a notional high-end autonomous collaborative platform (ACP) that the company sees as a logical outgrowth of the technology demonstrator program.

Two government-funded flying demonstrators are being built to support the Vägval Stridsflyg (VVSF, combat aircraft path selection) program that is being managed by FMV defense procurement agency. The work also involves industry partners, the armed forces, and the Sweden’s FOI defense research agency. 

The effort is also known as SWAP, which loosely covers the English-language title of Swedish Concept Air Program. VVSF has grown out of the earlier Koncept för Framtida Stridsflyg (KFS, future combat aircraft concept) studies that were undertaken between 2024 and 2026. 

VVSF was initially due to lead to a decision around 2030, although it is now widely expected within the Swedish industry that it will be 2028 or earlier—perhaps even before the second of Saab’s two demonstrators has flown. Among other things, the decision will point to the means of procurement, whether it be an off-the-shelf purchase from overseas, a multinational development with other partners, or a national program.

First Tech Demonstrator Prepares to Fly

In the meantime, Saab is in the advanced stages of construction of the two uncrewed air vehicles. The first, dubbed A1, is to fly “within 15 months”, according to Peter Nilsson, head of Saab’s Advanced Programs business unit. It will be powered by the same General Electric F414 engine that powers the Gripen E, and is slightly longer than the fighter. Renderings of the air vehicle show a chined fuselage with diverter-less supersonic intakes, long leading-edge root extensions, and twin outward-canted fins.

A1’s primary task is to demonstrate the ability to design, build and fly a stealthy supersonic uncrewed air vehicle. The company is not without expertise in low-observable designs, having flown the stealthy Filur uncrewed combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator in 2005, which in part led to it becoming Dassault’s major industrial partner in the European Neuron UCAV program, including the construction of most of the fuselage.

Following on from A1 is A2, which is broadly similar but is more missionized. It will incorporate mission systems, and will also have an internal weapons bay for captive-carry—and possibly live firing—trials. It is also to feature some new materials. 

Meanwhile, A1 is being built with just a void in the structure where the weapons bay is located. Additionally, there are 15 other ground-based technology demonstration programs running associated with VVSF, covering a range of advanced technologies that are likely to be incorporated into future air system concepts.

Saab is funded for A1/A2 activity up to 2030 through the VVSF program, but it is already looking beyond the government’s decision. Having studied developments and trends closely —and recognizing that air forces have reached what Nilsson describes as an “inflection point in airpower”—the company is pursuing its own studies into a high-end ACP with significantly greater capabilities than those offered by many of the collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs) that are in development elsewhere. 

The company is proposing that a stealthy, supersonic ACP with sophisticated systems and defenses as being more operationally relevant and cost-effective than the cheaper and more attritable CCAs. The logic is that CCAs are increasingly being proposed for more advanced roles that, in turn, require ever more complex—and therefore costly—equipment. As the costs rise, the benefit of “attritability” loses value, and it is more desirable that the vehicles should have performance characteristics, along with system capability and reliability, more in line with those of crewed fighters.

Higher Price, Lower Costs

In terms of numbers, Nilsson suggested that acquisition costs would obviously be higher at around half of those of the crewed Gripen E, for example, as opposed to figures of 25 to 30 percent being quoted by some CCA developers. However, projected life-cycle costs would be around a third as much.

With such costs the high-end ACPs would most likely be operated in the ratio of two or three per crewed fighter. Given the level of sophistication being discussed, the high-end ACP effectively becomes an uncrewed fighter, and it is not a massive leap to turn it into an optionally piloted vehicle in the future. It could even be considered as part of the core fighter development that is due to run from 2036 into the 2050s.

As a starting point, Saab has created a notional A3 design for a high-end ACP, a tailless, supersonic, low-observable design concept, for which a full-scale model has been created. Further development of the A3 beyond the initial concept phase would naturally draw on the work being undertaken now on the A1 and A2. A development program for the A3 could run in the 2031-2035 timeframe, with perhaps several iterative designs. Fielding could occur in the second half of the 2030s for initial operation alongside Gripen Es.

As well as the national requirement, Saab sees good prospects for a high-end ACP in the export market, especially for current and future Gripen operators.