Saab And Airbus Explore Joint Drone Wingman Program For Eurofighter And Gripen Jets.

Saab and Airbus confirmed they are exploring a joint unmanned fighter program designed to fly alongside Eurofighter Typhoon and Gripen E aircraft. The talks point to Europe adopting loyal wingman concepts that are already reshaping U.S. air combat planning.

According to Reuters on December 5, 2025, Saab and Airbus confirmed that they are in talks to cooperate on unmanned fighter technology intended to fly alongside current frontline European combat jets. The project focuses on uncrewed aircraft supporting the Airbus-backed Eurofighter Typhoon and Saab Gripen E rather than replacing them, mirroring the loyal wingman and collaborative combat aircraft concepts pioneered in the United States and Australia. The discussions are at an exploratory stage but already signal that Stockholm and Munich are preparing for a future in which every manned fighter leads a formation of autonomous partners.
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Saab and Airbus are advancing a new unmanned wingman concept designed to fly alongside Eurofighter Typhoon and Gripen E fighters, boosting European airpower with AI-driven sensors, electronic warfare, and expanded strike capability (Picture source: Airbus).

In separate interviews at a Brussels industry forum, Saab CEO Michael Johansson and Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury stressed that the talks are formally independent of the troubled Franco-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System program, but neither executive hid the strategic weight behind them. Johansson pointed to existing cooperation around Saab’s Arexis electronic warfare suite for German Eurofighters and said the companies were looking at “something on the unmanned side” that would complement legacy fighters rather than displace them. Faury confirmed active discussions and underlined that Airbus sees good perspectives with Saab in unmanned systems and electronics, while insisting the talks are not a backdoor restructuring of FCAS. With FCAS ministers meeting on December 11 and Italy signaling that Germany would be welcome in the rival GCAP program, this relatively modest drone initiative already sits at the heart of Europe’s fighter politics.

Behind the high-level soundbites is a clear technical agenda. Saab is under a multiyear, 2.6 billion SEK contract from the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration to conduct future fighter concept studies from 2025 to 2027, explicitly under a system-of-systems framework that includes both manned and unmanned platforms. In parallel, Sweden is preparing operational trials of Saab-developed drone swarms and has already flown an AI-piloted Gripen E against a human pilot, indicating that autonomy and teaming are not abstract buzzwords but active test campaigns. Any Saab Airbus drone family is therefore likely to emerge from this ecosystem of AI agents, swarming algorithms, and open architecture mission systems rather than a clean sheet one-off demonstrator.

On the Airbus side, the industrial starting point is unusually concrete. At ILA Berlin in 2024, Airbus rolled out a full-scale Wingman concept aircraft, a stealthy uncrewed jet about 15.5 meters long with a 12-meter wingspan and roughly 61 square meters of wing area, shaped for low observability and internal weapon carriage. The company describes Wingman as a modular escort capable of carrying precision air-to-surface weapons, beyond visual range air-to-air missiles, electronic attack payloads, and reconnaissance sensors, all linked to a manned Typhoon cockpit by high-bandwidth data links. Airbus has already teamed with German AI specialists to develop the autonomy brain for Wingman, moving toward an aircraft that can manage navigation, formation keeping, threat reactions, and weapons employment under mission commander supervision rather than constant stick and throttle control.

Saab brings complementary puzzle pieces. The company has unveiled a supersonic, low-observable loyal wingman concept designed to fly alongside Gripen while carrying sensors and weapons internally. At the same time, Saab secured major orders from Airbus to equip German Eurofighter EK aircraft with the Arexis electronic warfare suite, featuring ultra-wideband digital receivers, gallium nitride AESA jammers, and advanced digital radio frequency memory techniques optimized for suppression of enemy air defenses. This is significant because EW, passive sensing, and AI-assisted spectrum management are exactly the capabilities that tend to migrate first onto uncrewed escorts, which can be risked deeper into high-threat environments.

Operationally, the Saab Airbus concept would allow a two-ship Typhoon or Gripen formation to bring the punch and survivability of a much larger strike package. In a Baltic or High North scenario, manned fighters could remain on the edge of an adversary integrated air defense system while loyal wingmen push forward as attritable scouts, radar decoys, and jamming platforms. Using their sensors to cue long-range Meteor-class air-to-air missiles or stand-in anti-radiation weapons, these drones would absorb the riskiest tasks while the manned jets preserve survivability. In strike missions, wingmen could act as missile trucks and electronic spearheads, revealing enemy emitters before the manned aircraft commit.

The tactical implications for NATO are considerable. Gripen E is optimized for dispersed operations from road bases and short airstrips, a concept aligned with wingmen that can also launch from semi-prepared sites. Eurofighter EK, built around the Arexis suite, is evolving into Germany’s dedicated SEAD platform and forms a natural mothership for stealthier, expendable escorts tasked to penetrate high-threat zones, overwhelm radars, and draw adversary missiles away from human pilots. Together, Saab and Airbus are sketching a European answer to the American CCA playbook, tuned to operational challenges around Kaliningrad, the Arctic, and potentially future Ukrainian air campaigns.

Industrial and political stakes are equally significant. FCAS remains mired in workshare disputes, while Italy, Britain, and Japan are opening the GCAP program to potential new partners. Sweden, after stepping away from the original Tempest framework, is now positioned so that a successful unmanned teaming program with Airbus could either evolve into a broader sixth-generation partnership or give Stockholm leverage to negotiate entry on its own terms. Johansson has been clear that Saab will not compromise its status as a full-scale fighter manufacturer, making this drone initiative a low-risk yet strategically meaningful path to deepen cooperation without surrendering industrial leadership.

Export dynamics ensure the story extends well beyond northern Europe. Brazil continues expanding its Gripen E fleet, Colombia has signed for 17 Gripen E and F aircraft, and Ukraine has signaled interest in building a post-war air force centered on more than 100 Gripen Es, supported initially by older C and D models. If Saab and Airbus can field a scalable, cost-effective loyal wingman architecture compatible with both Gripen and Eurofighter communities, they will offer mid-sized air forces a realistic gateway into manned uncrewed teaming without U.S. technology constraints. From an editorial vantage point, the emerging Saab Airbus alliance is less a marginal study effort than the seed of a European unmanned ecosystem that may determine how Typhoon and Gripen fleets fight in the 2030s. Whether this concept now receives substantial funding, a demonstrator, and a formal slot in NATO airpower planning will be the decisive question over the next 12 to 18 months.