Saab rolled out a full-scale model of its A3-001 uncrewed combat aircraft at the Swedish Armed Forces Jubilee Air Show at Malmen Air Base in Linköping. The mock-up is roughly the size of a Gripen and is meant as a loyal wingman for high-risk work: electronic warfare, suppression of enemy air defences and precision strike in contested airspace.
The company is not presenting A3 as a signed Swedish procurement. It is Saab’s own concept for what could follow in the mid-2030s if Stockholm builds on current studies with the Defence Materiel Administration. A smaller pair of stepping-stone demonstrators, A1 and A2, is intended to fly uncrewed with fighter-like characteristics before 2030. Reporting from the show said the first of those demonstrators is targeted about 15 to 18 months out, with an F414-class engine on the early airframe.
Crewed Plus Uncrewed
Peter Nilsson, head of Saab Advanced Programs, said the company is “exploring technologies that will lay the foundation for the next generation of combat air systems” with Sweden. “This separate Saab A3 system is our own concept for what could follow in the mid-2030s should Sweden decide to build on the work we are currently doing.”
A3 is described as low-observable, highly autonomous and able to work across air, land, maritime, space and cyber tasks alongside crewed fighters. Defence minister Pål Jonson told Breaking Defense a loyal unmanned wingman would be “a natural further development of the Gripen system.” The JAS 39 Gripen remains the mothership in that picture; A3 is the expendable, or at least more attritable, partner.
Europe’s Answer to CCA
The idea matches the U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort, which has already picked Anduril and General Atomics designs. Saab uses the term Autonomous Collaborative Platform. Airbus has also been reported as looking at a Saab partnership after the Franco-German FCAS fighter programme stalled earlier this year. First flight of a Swedish uncrewed demonstrator would still leave a long gap before any operational wingman sits on a Swedish ramp.