After Successful Engine Tests, HAL's Stealth CATS-Warrior Progressing Towards Taxi Trials and Historic Maiden Flight

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has achieved a significant milestone in the development of its Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) with the successful completion of engine ground runs for the CATS-Warrior full-scale demonstrator.

This breakthrough paves the way for upcoming taxi trials and eventually the much-anticipated maiden flight of this advanced unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).

Sources indicate that HAL is preparing to initiate taxi trials in the coming weeks. This critical testing phase will assess the CATS-Warrior's ground handling, control systems, and overall system integration, ensuring its readiness for flight operations.

Following the successful completion of taxi trials, the CATS-Warrior is expected to receive clearance for its first flight. A dedicated technical committee will rigorously analyze the data from the trials, and if all parameters are met, the maiden flight could be approved within the next few months.

The CATS-Warrior is not merely a drone; it represents a crucial element of HAL's vision for a networked combat system. Designed to operate as a "loyal wingman" to manned fighter aircraft, particularly the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the CATS-Warrior will enhance combat effectiveness through collaborative missions.

This collaborative approach allows manned and unmanned platforms to work together seamlessly, conducting tasks such as reconnaissance, threat engagement, and electronic warfare in a coordinated manner.

Furthermore, the CATS-Warrior boasts low observability features, making it a stealthy UCAV capable of penetrating hostile airspace undetected. Its autonomous capabilities are designed to alleviate the workload on human pilots, enabling them to concentrate on strategic decision-making.

The CATS-Warrior program underscores India's growing expertise in developing advanced unmanned aerial systems. With its potential to revolutionize air combat operations, the CATS-Warrior is poised to become a game-changer for the Indian Air Force.

 

[sanket]

Good news, but first flight when? Couple of weeks or months? Contenders from MRFA don't have this concept yet while HAL is leading at the moment. Now LCA Tejas MK1A with mothership, while Tejas MK1A combo with Su-30 MKI Virupaksha AESA radar, Tejas MK1A will be almost stealth to perform combat missions in the future. Su-30 MKI Tejas MK1A & CATS Warrior will be very effective. Waiting for Astra MK3 too with Su-30 MKI, it's just a dream combat mission.

 

[abhinav srivastava]

What is the max altitude CATS warrior can achieve?

 

[P.K Senapati]

Conduct the taxi trials and flighttest as early as possible.
If it successfully passes the test it has potential to be further developed to a UCAV and will be useful for defense.

 

[Bhishma]

If we play our cards right, this thing can offset all our fighter jet woes. Work closely with top AI devs. Recruit from Silicon Valley and other parts of the world. Poach from Google/Spacex/Boston Dynamics/Telsa etc. Plenty of Indian origin talent. Follow what DeepMind is doing. DeepMind's Alpha Go, SpaceX's vertical landing technology, Boston Dynamics robots, Google's self driving car - all use the same underlying technology. The same can be used for autonomous drones. China is already investing heavily in this direction. We are totally oblivious to it.

Using a wolf pack strategy, it can overwhelm any fighter. We can build fully autonomous dogfight capable drones. So if we pit 10 drones against one enemy fighter, the enemy fighter doesnt stand a chance. Traditional fighters, no matter the generation are limited by how many A2A missiles they can carry. So if we overwhelm them with numbers, they will have to expend all their A2As. For example F16 has 9 hardpoints, which can take out 9 of these drones. But if we put in 10 drones, then the last drone can finish off the F16. That is the extreme case. In reality one drone will be equal to one fighter. Each F16 costs about $50M, losing one will be very expensive. But losing a drone will not be that expensive. Once we master this, we need to produce smaller, cheaper versions. The key lies in the AI.

For 5th gens, the vulnerability they have is when they fire the missile they give away their location. One of their USP is "we shoot the enemy jet before they can see us". But if they are forced to shoot the drone, their location is compromised and they lose the stealth advantage.

 

[Indrakumar Salam]

Why the engine intake is not stealth in design
when the airframe is stealth?

 

[Sandeep]

Why the engine intake is not stealth in design
when the airframe is stealth?

The engine intake is very small and the fan is hidden making it a stealth fighter

 

[Sandeep]

This is a very important project and it’s great news that it’s finally ready for flight and technology tests and trials. This is a stealth autonomous drone in reality but networking and pairing it with our fighter jets, drones and swarm drones will give us a major advantage and cut down the number of fighter pilots we actually need and cut down the threat to pilots in air battle or bombing missions.

Once HAL have developed and proven the technology concept and it passes all tests then HAL should turn this over to the private sector to manufacture. The private manufacturer will be more better, efficient, quick, reliable, effective and much cheaper to manufacture this on a larger scale. This drone should be made 100% indigenously with indigenous raw materials.

 

[Rajsn]

What engine is it using.