The HAL Combat Air Teaming System (CATS) is a planned Indian unmanned and manned combat aircraft air teaming system under development by

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian public sector aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bengaluru. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the world. H ...

(HAL). The system will consist of a manned fighter aircraft acting as "mothership" and a set of

swarming Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective animal behaviour, collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or a ...

UAVs and UCAVs governed by the mothership aircraft. A twin-seated

HAL Tejas The HAL Tejas () is an Indian single-engine, delta wing, Multirole combat aircraft, multirole Military aircraft, combat aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for t ...

is likely to be the mothership aircraft. Various other sub components of the system are currently under development and will be jointly produced by HAL, National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL),

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, head ...

(DRDO) and Newspace Research & Technologies. The primary aim is to make multiple advanced aerial platforms that can act as atmospheric satellites for high altitude surveillance, perform autonomous deep penetration precision strikes from standoff distance with maximum firepower while reduce human error and the threat on life. HAL is planning to complete all the project related developmental work by 2024 or 2025.

Design and development

HAL Combat Air Teaming is a composite amalgamation of a manned fighter aircraft acting as "mother ship" supported by number of

UAV and UCAVs. The objective is to make artificially intelligent (AI) high altitude surveillance drone,

air launch Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket, missile, parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the larger mother ship and then "dropp ...

platform and

loitering munition A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to Loiter (aeronautics), loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.situational awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness, often abbreviated as SA is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. It is also defined as the perception of the elements in the envi ...

to take out enemy targets from longer distance without human intervention. From 2017, the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

(IAF), HAL and Newspace Research & Technologies quietly started working on CATS project beginning with the subsystems development. In the same year some initial testing were done at

Pokhran Test Range Pokhran (official spelling Pokaran; ) is a town and a municipality located 112 km east of Jaisalmer city in the Jaisalmer district of the Indian state of Rajasthan. It is situated in the Thar Desert region. Surrounded by rocks, sand and ...

. The

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(MoD) in April, 2018 initiated a national level Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme under the Defence Innovation Organisation. It is to encourage and help local startups develop advance technologies and products for future requirements of the

Indian Armed Forces The Indian Armed Forces are the armed forces, military forces of the India, Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Ar ...

such as long range loitering munitions, stealth coating etc. Newspace Research & Technologies was one of the two Indian startups which were selected and funded through DRDO Technology Development Fund for the Combat Air Teaming System programme. Being one of the winner of iDEX, Newspace Research floated an idea for new generation autonomous aerial platforms that can achieve battlefield dominance and control inside enemy territory. In 2019, HAL presented the actual concept design and termed it ''Combat Air Teaming System'' (CATS). It included a family of AI based connected subsystems that will control and perform autonomous missions. The Deputy Chief Test Pilot at HAL and in-charge of the CATS project Group Captain (Retd) Harsh Vardhan Thakur said, "''CATS is an umbrella term for a combination of manned and unmanned stealth infused assets to increase dominance and decrease human casualties in a highly contested air space where it can perform air to air and air to ground operations''". In future, CATS will also include an unmanned cargo transport and rotary unmanned aerial vehicle (RUAV) that can carry payload of 25–30 kg and drop it around 18,000 feet above sea level. HAL already started working on a 200 kg RUAV with a range of 100 km. As of 2020, the technologies under development for mother-ship CATS MAX will be first tested on Jaguar MAX that will be equipped with DARIN III+ (Display Attack Ranging Inertial Navigation-III Plus) upgrade package before implementing of Tejas Mark 1A platform. HAL will also test an indigenous

data link A data link is a means of telecommunications link, connecting one location to another for the purpose of transmitting and receiving digital information (data communication). It can also refer to a set of electronics assemblies, consisting of a t ...

for faster data transfer on Hawk-i aircraft which is the locally upgraded version of BAE Hawk Mk.132 that may later on transferred to CATS MAX. As per Director of HAL Engineering, Research & Development division Arup Chatterjee, each subsystem under CATS project will cost ₹40 crore while an initial investment of ₹400 crore is needed for CATS Warrior, CATS Air Launched Flexible Assets (ALFA) and CATS Hunter. The total expected cost as per HAL is ₹1,000 crore that will include technology development and

prototyping A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

. Till February 2021, HAL already invested resources on CATS programme from an allocated ₹400 crore internal budget with Indian Air Force planning to join at later stage of development cycle. The main component in CATS is the Tejas Mark 1A aircraft which could be modified with additional command & control interface for this purpose which will then act as Mothership for Air teaming eXploitation (MAX). This CATS MAX will be equipped or teamed up with other sub systems like CATS Warrior, CATS ALFA, CATS Hunter and CATS Infinity. To support the Manned and UnManned Teaming operations (MUM-T), an AI based combat algorithm is being developed under Air Combat Intelligence Development (ACID) project. In 2021, all the systems are currently under various stages of design and development which will be jointly produced by HAL as the leading project agency in collaboration with National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) of DRDO and Newspace Research & Technologies. CAIR is the main subcontractor to develop advance combat algorithm for artificially intelligent, autonomous

target acquisition Target acquisition is the detection and identification of the location of a target in sufficient detail to permit the effective employment of lethal and non-lethal means. The term is used for a broad area of applications. A "target" here is an e ...

system under ACID project. As per HAL, it will take 15 months to convert Tejas Mark 1A into MAX platform. Under the work share agreement, HAL will develop CATS Hunter and CATS ALFA. At the same time Newspace Research will work on ALFS-S and CATS Infinity. While CATS Warrior will be a joint development effort. All the components of the CATS project are expecting completion by 2024 or 2025. A modified twin seated

is expected to act as lead fighter aircraft. The main combat drone

HAL CATS Warrior HAL CATS Warrior is a low observable unmanned combat aerial vehicle and a loyal wingman developed by the Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) under the Public Sector Undertakings in India, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). ...

, itself will be able to release a swarm of 24 Alpha-S drones. Similar systems are also being developed by agencies of China, Russia and the United States. In January 2021, a swarm of 75 drones were flown to showcase the technological maturity of distributed coordinated control scheme based on heterogeneous roles at Army Command Headquarters (ACHQ) with the goal to gradually increase the numbers to 1,000. The

control system A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial ...

under joint development with the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

and NewSpace Research & Technologies will be used later on ALFA-S. In 2025, it was reported that HAL is planning to modify the proposed HAL HLFT-42 to replace the Tejas and Jaguar as the mothership for the CATS.

Components

CATS Warrior

CATS Warrior will be powered by an improved version of HAL PTAE-7 in a twin turbojet engine configuration which was previously used in DRDO Lakshya. Similar in operational role to the Australian Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone, it serves as an unmanned stealth platform which can be controlled by the

Mothership A mother ship, mothership or mother-ship is a large vehicle that leads, serves, or carries other smaller vehicles. A mother ship may be a maritime ship, aircraft, or spacecraft. Examples include bomber aircraft, bombers converted to carry exp ...

CATS MAX in formation of 2-4 warrior drone from as far as 150 kilometer and is able to fly alongside it to accomplish tasks such as scouting, absorbing enemy fire or even attacking the targets if necessary with its internal weapons. With 700 km of maximum range for

self-destruct A self-destruct is a mechanism that can cause an object to destroy itself or render itself inoperable after a predefined set of circumstances has occurred. Self-destruct mechanisms are typically found on devices and systems where malfunction coul ...

suicide missions, CATS Warrior can also carry a payload of 24 ALFA-S up to 350 km for release and safely return to base. HAL is going to invest ₹390 Crore ($53.5 Million) for the development of CATS Warrior platform for which the company management already gave its approval as of February 2021. The integration with CATS MAX will take 1–2 years and first flights is scheduled for 2024–25.

CATS Hunter

With a

KEPD 350 The Taurus KEPD-350 is a German-Swedish air-launched cruise missile, manufactured by Taurus Systems and used by Germany, Spain, and South Korea. Taurus Systems GmbH is a partnership between MBDA Deutschland GmbH (formerly LFK) and Saab Bofors D ...

like appearance, the CATS Hunter will weigh and will be powered by a single HAL PTAE-7 turbojet engine. It is designed as a low observable standoff

air-launched cruise missile An air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) is a cruise missile that is launched from a military aircraft. Current versions are typically standoff weapons which are used to attack predetermined land and naval targets with conventional weapon, conventio ...

that can be integrated into CATS MAX,

Mirage 2000 The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, delta wing, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...

Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for th ...

and will consist of an interchangeable weapon carriage section based on mission profile that can carry of unitary warhead or

cluster munition A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy veh ...

with a striking range of . Once the payload is dropped at the designated target, CATS Hunter will be able to return and can be recovered through a two tier parachute system. It will use multiple

global navigation satellite system A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geopositioning. A satellite navigation system with global coverage is termed global navigation satellite system (GNSS). , four global systems are op ...

(GNSS) and

terrain contour matching Terrain contour matching, or TERCOM, is a navigation system used primarily by cruise missiles. It uses a contour map of the terrain that is compared with measurements made during flight by an on-board radar altimeter. A TERCOM system considerably ...

(TERCOM) with mid-flight updates for guidance and an imaging seeker that can help in automatic target acquisition during terminal phase.

CATS ALFA

It is a carrier which will contain Air Launched Flexible Asset Swarm (ALFA-S)

surface to air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-a ...

, radars and fighter jets stationed on ground. Using an artificially intelligent

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

algorithm, the onboard mission computer and seeker on ALFA-S can perform autonomous

which then assign and self lock on target to perform suicidal attack using an individual or multiple drones. A Jaguar MAX will carry 24 ALFA-S in 4 CATS ALFA pods, while as per

Group Captain Group captain (Gp Capt or G/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British influence. Group cap ...

Harsh Vardan Thakur from HAL Flight Operations Unit,

Sukhoi Su-30MKI The Sukhoi Su-30MKI (NATO reporting name: Flanker-H) is a two-seater, twinjet Multirole combat aircraft, multirole air superiority fighter developed by Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi and built under licence by India's Hindustan Aeronautic ...

aircraft will be able to carry 30 to 40 ALFA-S during flight. Under the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), ALFA-S is the first joint project between Newspace Research & Technologies, HAL and the US

Air Force Research Laboratory The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is a scientific research and development detachment of the United States Air Force Air Force Materiel Command, Materiel Command dedicated to leading the discovery, development, and integration of direct- ...

(AFRL). HAL will also help in the designing of CATS ALFA carrier platform that will air launch ALFA-S loitering munition. The first prototype of ALFA-S will be deployed on BAE Hawk 132 Advanced Jet Trainers.

CATS Infinity

For last few years NewSpace Research & Technologies already started developing systems such as CATS Infinity. In 2017,

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

helped in validating the UAV and was impressed by the design and technological advancement of Infinity in the field of

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

. The first flight of the system designed for high altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) role was planned from 2019. It is a solar powered high altitude drone with an endurance level as far as 3 months at a cruising altitude of , weighing . Infinity is designed to be equipped with

terrain mapping Terrain contour matching, or TERCOM, is a navigation system used primarily by cruise missiles. It uses a contour map of the terrain that is compared with measurements made during flight by an on-board radar altimeter. A TERCOM system considerably ...

camera and will have the capability of producing airborne real time cueing hyperspectral enhanced reconnaissance for deep strike aerial missions inside enemy territory. With a wingspan of , the drone uses multiple ultra-lightweight electric motors that generates a speed of . New Space is working on high-density

rechargeable A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or primar ...

Lithium-Sulphur batteries that will help constantly power the system for longer duration. It is also intended as a platform for real time communication and control of

unmanned ground vehicle An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) also known colloquially as armored robot (ARB) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it is inconvenient, dan ...

s like Mobile Autonomous Stabilisation System (MASS), Mobile Autonomous Robot System (MARS) and

Muntra Muntra is a family of unmanned vehicle, unmanned armored vehicle developed by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation. The name stands for "Mission Unmanned Tracked" Design Muntra is a family modified Soviet BMP-2 armored personn ...

developed by DRDO as well as in

drone warfare Drone warfare is a form of warfare using military drones or military robots. The robots may be remote controlled or have varying levels of autonomy during their mission. Types of robots include unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weapon ...

under the CATS program. The Infinity platform is built as an Indian alternative for civilian and military drones like Maraal UAVs,

Facebook Aquila The Facebook Aquila was an experimental solar-powered drone developed by Facebook for use as an atmospheric satellite, intended to act as relay stations for providing internet access to remote areas. The Aquila first flew on 28 June 2016 with ...

Airbus Zephyr The Zephyr is a series of high-altitude platform station aircraft produced by Airbus. They were designed originally by QinetiQ, a commercial offshoot of the UK Ministry of Defence. In July 2010, the Zephyr 7 flew for 14 days. In March 2013, th ...

and

AVIC The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is a Chinese state-owned publicly-traded aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Beijing. AVIC is overseen by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the ...

Morning Star of China. As a civilian platform, it can also help in

emergency management Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actu ...

internal security Internal security is the act of keeping peace within the borders of a sovereign state or other Self-governance, self-governing territories, generally by upholding the national law and defending against internal security threats. This task and rol ...

, providing communication for

smart cities A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

and

traffic management Traffic management is a key branch within logistics. It concerns the planning, control and purchasing of transport services needed to physically move vehicles (for example aircraft, road vehicles, rolling stock and watercraft) and freight. Tr ...

. As of July 2021, HAL already started works on further improving the design of CATS Infinity with NewSpace Research & Technologies and is waiting for the approval from

(MoD). As per HAL official, the development will take 3–4 years of time. The CATS Infinity will act as communication bridge between

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

and

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

, by providing live video feed and images of the battlefield. As part of drone warfare programme, the

Union government The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...

is planning to provide an initial funding of in October 2021. HAL, NAL and NewSpace Research will build the first prototype of CATS Infinity with long

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

. The development will be completed by 2025. On 13 July 2022, HAL sanctioned through internal funding for prototype development. A scale model with wing span of 8 m, completed two successful test flights on 19 October 2022. The flight was for 5 minutes with no solar panels installed. In February 2024,
test flight
of the scaled down prototype weighing 23 kg was tested with a wingspan of at an altitude of was carried out on

Chitradurga Aeronautical Test Range Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga is an out-door testing and evaluation facility set up by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) exclusively for unmanned and manned aircraft. The ATR is under the command of the Aeronautic ...

with a duration of eight and a half hours. Officials stated that the development is now expected for completion in 2027. In the next test, expected to happen in March 2024, the duration shall be increased to 24 hours. In May 2024, the scaled down prototype named HAPS was again flight tested and it set a new national endurance record of 27 hours at . The flight test was conducted at

. NRT intends to conduct additional endurance studies using the HAPS scaled model before concentrating on the full-scale version, by attempting a continuous 7-day flight at an altitude of

above mean sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

(AMSL) at a cruising speed of . NRT intends to develop the full-scale HAPS model (CATS Infinity), a far larger UAV intended for ninety-day endurance at high altitudes. With a payload capacity of , the full-scale model will have a higher

MTOW The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft, also known as the maximum structural takeoff weight or maximum structural takeoff mass, is the maximum weight at which the p ...

of . Indian Navy has also shown interest in this project.

References

External links

Intelligent Mobile Robotics
{{HAL aircraft Indian Air Force