Unmanned combat aircraft on the fast track: GKN Aerospace and Sweden test a new development path

Just 18 months are to pass between a military requirement and a flying demonstrator: at Malmen Air Base, GKN Aerospace has publicly shown its new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) project for the first time. Whether it will one day become an unmanned combat aircraft is open – for the Swedes, this is about far more than a single drone. Also being tested are new development processes, low-cost manufacturing and a European supply chain that is to be as sovereign as possible.

In addition to a full-scale mock-up of the new UAV, GKN also presented a turbojet engine developed specifically for this platform.

The pace is particularly remarkable. The Swedish procurement agency FMV only awarded the development contract to GKN Aerospace in November 2025. In just 18 months, a completely newly developed UAV demonstrator and a new turbojet are now to be built and flight testing is to begin.

A year ago this was an idea and an ambition. Today we are presenting the first tangible result of this work— Joakim Andersson, President Engines at GKN Aerospace

According to Andersson, this speed was made possible by close cooperation with FMV and the Swedish Armed Forces, as well as by pooling various competences within the group.

Demonstrator for technology and processes

The primary aim is therefore not to develop a specific operational system as quickly as possible. For now, the platform is explicitly designed as a demonstrator for technology and processes. Sweden wants to use it to clarify how new military capabilities can in future be developed, produced and integrated into the armed forces faster, more simply and more cheaply.

This deliberately breaks with conventional procurement procedures. Instead of first spending years defining detailed requirements, development starts from the military problem and the desired effect.

From the Swedish Air Force’s point of view, this is also a decisive advantage. New capabilities, it says, must be available considerably faster today. Given the pace at which technology is changing, the classic path is no longer sufficient: formulating a requirement, conducting studies, launching development programmes and only years later turning to design and production.

Instead, military tactics and operational experience, industry’s technical know-how and the expertise of the procurement agency are to come together from the outset. As a result, development steps increasingly run in parallel rather than one after the other.

Ultimately, the Swedish Air Force wants to link operational experience directly with what industry can deliver technologically, thus creating capabilities that can be continuously adapted.

Affordability and numbers

The second key point is cost. Here Sweden is drawing a lesson from current conflicts: the air forces of the future cannot consist solely of a few highly complex and therefore expensive systems. They also need cheaper platforms that can be produced quickly and fielded in larger numbers.

Accordingly, FMV also describes the platform as an attempt to strike the right balance between simplicity, cost and military effect.

At least in part, the approach thus differs from highly sophisticated Collaborative Combat Aircraft such as those Saab is currently working on (-> Saab unveils new unmanned CCA platform). Those are primarily about powerful, supersonic autonomous platforms that complement Gripen and Global Eye. The GKN programme, by contrast, asks how cost-efficient unmanned capabilities can be scaled up rapidly.

What concrete military role could result from this has not yet been decided, however. GKN and FMV stress that, for now, this is a demonstrator. Which capabilities can be derived for a later operational system is only to become clear during testing.

In-house turbojet

Technically, the programme goes far beyond an airframe. GKN Aerospace is responsible for the overall system, including a specially developed turbojet engine, the avionics and system integration.

The group is drawing on the competences of several European sites. The engine is based to a significant extent on Swedish know-how from Trollhättan. GKN has decades of experience with military aero engines at this site and, among other things, supports the engines of the Gripen fleet there.

Great importance is attached to additive manufacturing, i.e. industrial 3D printing, which is intended to allow engine components to be developed and produced considerably faster. In parallel, GKN teams in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are working on the airframe, avionics and systems for control, monitoring and navigation.

The project is thus also intended to demonstrate how existing industrial capabilities in Europe can be pooled at short notice for new military systems.

Control over the supply chain

Security of supply is a high priority for FMV. It is therefore examining how much of such a system can be developed and manufactured in Sweden or Europe.

The focus is on technologies and supply chains that Sweden and its European partners control themselves as far as possible. A dedicated engine is of particular strategic importance, because propulsion systems are among the most technically demanding and at the same time most critical components of modern aircraft.

From GKN’s perspective, the programme is therefore part of a broader development. Air forces are likely to consist in future of a mix of different crewed and unmanned platforms – from the complex combat aircraft to the cheaper unmanned system that can be built in larger numbers. Propulsion is therefore also to become scalable.

Still a demonstrator, not an unmanned combat aircraft

The platform is thus as much an aircraft project as a test case for new procedures in procurement and development. FMV wants to gain experience in technology development, requirements management, contract design, testing, manufacturing and cooperation with industry.

The decisive factor, it says, is to drastically shorten the path from operational requirement to a system that can actually be produced and tested.

No decision has therefore yet been taken on later series production. If the demonstrator programme is successful, however, the findings could serve the Swedish Armed Forces as a basis for further decisions. Which platform ultimately emerges, and for which tasks, is to depend on the test results and on future military requirements.

This is precisely where FMV sees the value of the project: a demonstrator makes it possible to test technologies quickly, reduce uncertainties and open up options without having to commit to a final system at the outset.

The approach thus fits into a development that was also visible elsewhere during the celebrations at Malmen Air Base: Sweden wants to accelerate military innovation massively. Whether with Saab’s new autonomous fighter jet or with GKN’s very differently oriented demonstrator – in future, rapid iterations, early hardware and immediate testing are to set the pace instead of years-long specification phases.