Saab announced on 3 November 2026 that it had flown its own artificial intelligence agents on a Gripen E fighter. During flight trials, one agent autonomously controlled the aircraft in beyond-visual-range (BVR) air combat scenarios1. Saab had already flown a Gripen E with Helsing's AI agent Centaur in May and June 2025, on flights where a safety pilot could take back control at any time23. Peter Nilsson, head of Advanced Programs at Saab Aeronautics, told journalists that the agents are now ready for operational deployment. He said the only hold-up is the ability of the customer (the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration, FMV, and the Swedish Air Force) to absorb them into real-world operations4.

What Saab tested on the Gripen E

Saab says the agents, the training environments and the supporting development tools were all developed in-house1. The agents are trained in the company's AI Fighter Pilot Academy, where they accumulate millions of simulated flight hours across a wide range of operational scenarios1. BVR air combat is one of the capabilities they learn there, and Saab says this capability has now been validated under real flight conditions1. According to Aviation International News, Saab has been testing the agents in the air aboard the Gripen E for around two years, on tasks including area assessment and denial as well as battle damage assessment4.

Saab credits the Gripen E's software-defined architecture with allowing new AI software to be integrated and flown in an operational fighter without dedicated experimental platforms1. AIN reports that the architecture segregates mission software from flight-critical functions4. For computing power, Saab uses Sferical AI, a Swedish sovereign AI initiative of which it is a founding partner1.

The 2025 Centaur trials against a crewed Gripen D

The first flight with Centaur on board a Gripen E took place on 28 May 2025 under Saab's Project Beyond2. Over the Baltic Sea, the Gripen E's pilot handed control to Centaur, which executed complex manoeuvres in a BVR combat environment and cued the pilot to fire23. The third flight, on 3 June 2025, pitted Centaur against a real Gripen D in a series of BVR scenarios2. That opponent was human-controlled3. Saab test pilot Marcus Wandt was at the controls of a Gripen E during one of the Centaur flights3. The project was fully sponsored by FMV2, and Saab and Helsing continue to develop Centaur4.

How the pilot's role is described

Helsing says that once the Gripen's pilot switches Centaur on, the agent is entrusted with full machine control to conduct combat manoeuvres3. Johan Segertoft, a programme manager at Saab, told the German magazine ES&T that the pilot remains the decision-maker and that, with Centaur on board, the pilot's mind is freed for other tasks5. According to ES&T, Saab sees the AI as a supporting tool, with decision-making authority remaining with the human5.

Saab says its own agents can support the pilot in the cockpit or operate aboard a dedicated uncrewed air platform alongside crewed aircraft1. To master tactical decision-making, the agents need to learn, adapt and collaborate with pilots and operators1. Nilsson expects future air combat to be defined by networks of crewed and uncrewed systems working together as a coordinated force1. Speaking to Breaking Defense and other media, he said the harder question was not the flights themselves but how to turn their success into a dependable capability that can learn and improve over time6. For the wider debate on crewed and uncrewed fighters, see our article on future fighters and uncrewed wingmen.

What comes next

Saab says it will continue to expand the agents' capabilities and fly them in a broader range of scenarios1. Nilsson told journalists that operational use could take "months, or single digits of years"4. Agents developed for the Gripen E will be adapted for autonomous collaborative platforms, and vice versa; they could also be used in the GlobalEye airborne early warning aircraft4. Saab is further developing three uncrewed aircraft, the A1, A2 and A3, on the path towards a loyal wingman drone6.

For automation in airline flying, see our report on EASA and single-pilot operations. Military pilots weighing a later move can read about hiring paths from the military to US airlines.