On February 23, the US Navy announced recent simulated flight tests of a wingman UAV concept in a beyond-visualrange combat scenario. Coordination between UAVs, acting as wingman to a manned aircraft, was handled by Tactical Battle Manager software, which communicated between manned and unmanned platforms during the flight tests. Collaboration for the flight tests involved Naval Air Systems Command, the Navy Center for Applied Research in Artificial Intelligence and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
The AFRL Loyal Wingman programme is working on similar concepts and is aiming for technology demonstrations by 2023. David C Isby
