A Look into the ‘Loyal Wingman’ Drone Concept Plus

In 2019, a wave of countries have either started, or are interested in starting, ‘loyal wingman’ unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programs.

The basic idea of a loyal wingman UAV is to field a drone that could support manned aircraft in air-to-air and air-to-surface missions, especially in high-risk operational environments, such as dense surface-to-air missile (SAM) zones or against enemy aircraft with long-range air-to-air capabilities.

The most developed of these programs is Kratos Defence & Security Solutions’ XQ-58 Valkyrie, which first flew in March 2019 and is now undergoing tests as part of the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Low Cost Attritable Strike Demonstrator (LCASD) program.

Today, Australia, the UK, France and Germany, and China have each signaled an intent in form or another to develop their own analogous solutions to the LCASD. Others, such as South Africa, are now starting to entertain the idea as potential low-cost air warfare modernization effort.

This Quwa Premium article will explore how these countries are generally steering their respective loyal wingman UAV projects and, in turn, attempt to understand what Pakistan would require in order to gain its own loyal wingman UAV (especially in concert with its next-generation fighter program).

Intended Outcomes

The flight characteristics, performance, subsystems and other configuration factors will vary across loyal wingman models, but there are two overarching design elements in these UAVs. These elements are that they must effectively support manned aircraft, and second, they must be low in procurement cost.

Support Manned Aircraft

In explaining the purpose of loyal wingman drones, the industry has largely been vague. In fact, the specific capability gains vary between the goals of each original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

So, for example, China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University is positioning its LJ-1 design as a UAV that could serve as a decoy for enemy air-to-air missiles (AAM) and, if deployed as such, serve as a long-range cruise missile (i.e., suicide drone).[1] But it will also function as an electronic warfare (EW) jammer.[2]

On the other hand, Boeing Australia is aiming to develop a UAV with “fighter-like” performance as well as subsystems to enable for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and EW as part of its Airpower Teaming System.[3] However, “fighter-like” would imply supersonic speed, which is a key difference from Kratos’ XQ-58A Valkyrie, which cruises at subsonic speed.[4]

Likewise, some analysts have posited that loyal wingman drones could also have their own radars, which would enable them to search for targets while enabling the manned aircraft to keep its radars off and, in turn, reduce their detectability.[5] However, over-equipping them with such electronics will raise the cost.

Since it is the closest to availability, Kratos’ XQ-58A could emerge as a template for other OEMs, especially for the initial set of loyal wingman drones to enter the market. Kratos developed the XQ-58A in response to USAF’s LCASD requirement, which, in turn, required a drone that could carry air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions, EW and electronic attack (EA) equipment, and be disposable.

Disposability is a key design requirement. From USAF’s vantage point, these loyal wingman UAVs will not have high survivability rates. In real-world operations, they will be used to maximum effect to protect the manned aircraft, and to execute high-risk attack operations with minimal risk to aircrews.