Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace Unveils FWD Supreme, India’s First AI-Piloted Fighter Jet Concept

Image Source : Flying Wedge Defence and Aerospace

In a historic leap for India’s defence ecosystem, Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA), an Indian AI warfare company, has unveiled the nation’s first AI-Piloted Fighter Jet Concept, FWD Supreme. Designed to advance the future of air combat through the Mobbing Doctrine, the company also announced the first flight of its FWD Supreme Lite technology demonstrator is targeted for Q3, 2026.

With the program, India enters the global AI fighter race with a new doctrine and joins an exclusive group of top 3 nations, including the United States, Turkey, and Germany that are actively pursuing AI-piloted fighter aircraft programs aimed at redefining the future of air combat.

Unlike conventional unmanned aircraft that are remotely operated by human pilots, FWD Supreme is an AI-piloted fighter jet which will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to fly itself. The program aims to integrate advanced situational awareness, sensor fusion, autonomous decision-making, cognitive mission execution, and advanced combat capabilities into a next-generation fighter jet architecture. FWD Supreme is being designed to perceive, analyze, decide, and act in highly contested environments with minimal human intervention. The platform is being built around the Mobbing Doctrine, a new warfare doctrine envisioned by Suhas Tejaskanda, Founder & CEO, FWDA.

“The idea is to deploy multiple AI-piloted fighter jets operating together as a coordinated swarm force against higher-value enemy manned platforms. By leveraging intelligent networking, autonomous decision-making, and cost asymmetry, it will address high-cost combat scenarios where even if four to five aircraft are lost during an engagement, the remaining aircraft can continue overwhelming enemy defences, or force enemy manned fighters to retreat. The objective is to function as a force multiplier by fundamentally altering the economics and dynamics of air combat,” shared Suhas Tejaskanda, the brain behind the Mobbing Doctrine.

“The future of air superiority will not be achieved by a single fighter aircraft. It will be defined by the most intelligent and adaptive combat systems working together as a network at machine speed,” he further added.

The platform is being manufactured indigenously at FWDA’s manufacturing unit in Bengaluru. The program is led by Sr Girish Dixit , Secretary ADA and Control systems expert, and is joined by distinguished aerospace scientists, including V Subba Rao, Outstanding Scientist (OS), Scientist ‘H’, Project Director, LCA Tejas program; ⁠G Radhakrishnan, Outstanding Scientist H Airframe & Structural Systems; ⁠Mahesh Prabhakar Padwale, Outstanding Scientist H, Propulsion & Engine-Integration; ⁠RS Rao, Outstanding Scientist H, Avionics and Weapon Integration, collectively bringing decades of experience in military aviation, fighter aircraft development, aerospace engineering, and advanced defence technologies.

The FWD Supreme family is currently envisioned in two variants. The FWD Supreme Lite, with an approximate all-up weight of 250 kg, is designed as the initial technology demonstrator and operational test platform. Its first flight is targeted for the third quarter of 2026.

The FWD Supreme Heavy, with an approximate all-up weight of one tonne, is being designed for extended-range autonomous combat operations. The platform is expected to be configurable for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), strike missions, collaborative combat operations, and future air-dominance missions.

The program’s development roadmap has been divided into two phases. Under Phase 1, the aircraft is expected to achieve a maximum speed of up to Mach 0.9 and a cruise speed of approximately Mach 0.5. Depending on the mission profile, the operational range is projected to be between 700 km and 1,000 km. The platform is also being developed with the capability to autonomously take off, execute missions, and recover with minimal human intervention.

In Phase 2, Flying Wedge aims to introduce supersonic performance capabilities approaching Mach 2, alongside advanced AI-enabled mission autonomy. The roadmap also includes enhanced survivability, low-observable characteristics, expanded collaborative combat capabilities, and multi-aircraft autonomous teaming.

According to the company, the unveiling of FWD Supreme marks the beginning of a long-term development program focused on creating scalable AI-piloted combat aircraft capable of supporting future military operations across air, land, and maritime domains.

Focused on the development of next-generation combat aviation technologies, Flying Wedge believes that AI-piloted fighter aircraft will become a defining element of future warfare, enabling nations to field intelligent, adaptable, and collaborative combat systems capable of operating across increasingly complex operational environments.