Saab has put a full-scale model of an uncrewed combat aircraft concept on public display in Sweden, and says it intends to fly uncrewed demonstrators with fighter-like characteristics before 2030, the company stated.

The concept, designated A3-001, is being shown at the Jubilee Air Show at Malmen Air Base in Linköping. According to the company, it illustrates how crewed and uncrewed platforms might operate together as an integrated system, complementing Gripen and future crewed combat aircraft.

The missions Saab envisages for it are the ones commanders are least willing to send a pilot into: electronic warfare, suppression of enemy air defences and precision strike in highly contested environments. The company describes low observability, a high degree of autonomy and the ability to operate across multiple domains.

Peter Nilsson, head of the Advanced Programs business unit at Saab, said: “We are currently in an intensive development phase where, together with Sweden, we are exploring technologies that will lay the foundation for the next generation of combat air systems. As part of this work, we intend to fly uncrewed demonstrators with fighter-like characteristics before 2030 as we support Sweden in considering their future options.”

He said: “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. Saab is well positioned to develop the next generation of combat air systems building on Gripen and GlobalEye, combined with our long experience in advanced aerospace systems.”

The distinction Nilsson draws matters. The demonstrators are work being done with the Swedish state, while A3 is Saab’s own concept for what might follow if Stockholm chooses to continue, which places the company ahead of any government commitment rather than delivering against one.

Sweden joined NATO in March 2024 and has been weighing how to replace or supplement Gripen into the 2040s. It left the Global Combat Air Programme discussions with Britain, Italy and Japan at an early stage, opting to keep its options open rather than commit to a sixth-generation crewed fighter, and has since concentrated on incremental Gripen development alongside work on uncrewed systems.

The A3 enters a field that has grown crowded. The United States Air Force is flying the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A under its Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme, Britain is pursuing autonomous collaborative platforms alongside GCAP, France, Germany and Spain are developing remote carriers within FCAS, and Australia has the MQ-28 Ghost Bat. Turkey, South Korea and China are all fielding or testing comparable designs.

What distinguishes the Swedish approach is scale of ambition relative to force size. Sweden has built and sustained an independent combat aircraft industry from a population of ten million by keeping designs affordable and export-minded, an approach that has taken Gripen to Brazil, Thailand, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and that logic would apply to an uncrewed system built to work alongside it.

Saab has not disclosed dimensions, weight, propulsion or expected cost for the concept, and a full-scale model is not a flying prototype, of course.