On-Demand Small Unmanned Aircraft System

Lore & Background

The ODSUAS was first tested in December 2016 at Fort Benning, Georgia, as part of the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments (AEWE) program. During these tests, researchers received feedback suggesting possible improvements, including enhanced agility, reduced noise, and a heavier payload capacity. The drone demonstrated flight speeds of up to 55 miles per hour.

The system's design eliminates the need to carry spare parts for different configurations, as additional drone parts can be manufactured on demand. While the 3D printer constructs the body of the UAV, components such as motors, sensors, cameras, and propellers must be obtained from a standing inventory. The ODSUAS can be tasked for missions involving perimeter surveillance, aerial defense, and reconnaissance.

Reader's Guide

The On-Demand Small Unmanned Aircraft System represents a shift toward rapid, mission-specific manufacturing in military aviation. By enabling soldiers to define requirements and receive a custom drone within 24 hours, the system reduces logistical burdens associated with carrying multiple pre-built configurations and spare parts. The use of 3D printing allows the body and additional parts to be produced on-site, while non-printable components like motors and sensors are drawn from existing stock. ARL researchers have stated that the manufacturing of 3D printed drones is only the first step of the project, with the overall goal being to leverage 3D printing as a way to produce mission-specific tools in a short amount of time. The feedback from the 2016 tests—calling for improved agility, noise reduction, and heavier payload capacity—indicates that the system was still in an iterative development phase. Its significance lies in demonstrating a flexible, on-demand approach to UAV support that could reduce supply chain dependencies and accelerate battlefield adaptation.

From Hand-on-Controls to Hand-off-Commands

The trajectory of manned-unmanned teaming traces a clear arc from direct manual control toward AI-mediated autonomy. Early unmanned aerial systems depended entirely on a human operator at a remote station, with the machine executing only the most basic flight tasks. As electronics matured on both the aircraft and the ground side, capabilities like automatic take-off and landing, self-directed mission planning, and autonomous target recognition and engagement became feasible. The introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence accelerated this shift, gradually moving the human from a stick-and-rudder controller into a supervisory role—approving or rejecting the machine's proposed actions rather than issuing every micro-command. NATO formalized this progression through STANAG 4586, which established five Levels of Interoperability ranging from the simplest remote-controlled link to fully self-launching and self-recovering platforms. Military planners continue to push beyond these established tiers, exploring scenarios where a single crew member directs multiple unmanned assets simultaneously, AI-assisted formation flying, and networked control of fully autonomous systems. The United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence encapsulated the end goal as synchronized employment of soldiers, manned and unmanned vehicles, robotics, and sensors to achieve superior situational understanding, greater lethality, and improved survivability.

Two Architectural Visions for the Loyal Wingman

Defense designers have pursued two distinct philosophies for building the loyal wingman. The first envisions a single airframe produced in dual variants: one carrying a human pilot or battle commander in the cockpit, the other swapping that seat for an onboard AI autonomy package while retaining the same airframe and weapons capacity. BAE Systems has publicly stated that its Tempest program is designed to operate in both manned and unmanned configurations under this model. The second approach calls for a purpose-built, smaller, and significantly cheaper autonomous drone that integrates into a team with crewed or uncrewed aircraft. Because it carries its own munitions and is deliberately kept affordable, the platform is designed to be attritable—replaceable if lost in combat. Early explorations of this dedicated-wingman concept include the Bayraktar Kızılelma and the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat. In both philosophies, the AI system is intended to deliver flying and mission-execution capability comparable to a human pilot, while eliminating the cost and weight of life-support infrastructure, making the drone a far lighter and lower-cost solution for the same operational task.

From Experimental Testbeds to Operational Fleet

The loyal wingman concept has moved rapidly from simulation and test flights to formal procurement decisions. In August 2020, DARPA's AlphaDogfight trials demonstrated an AI system defeating a human F-16 pilot in a series of simulated dogfights, a result that underscored both the potential and the urgency of autonomous aerial combat. The U.S. Marine Corps officially selected Northrop Grumman and Kratos on January 8, 2026, to develop its first operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft, a decision that effectively transitioned the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie from an experimental testbed into a serviceable loyal wingman platform. The U.S. Air Force's parallel CCA program, known as Skyborg, explored autonomous fighters designed to operate alongside sixth-generation aircraft, with both the MQ-28 and the XQ-58 considered during early development. The Air Force plans to commit more than $8.9 billion to CCA programs across fiscal years 2025 through 2029. Internationally, on June 22, 2026, Turkey's Baykar and Italy's Leonardo conducted a successful test in which a manned M-346FA directed a Bayraktar Kızılelma through autonomous take-off, formation joining, separation, and rejoining—marking a significant step toward multi-aircraft manned-unmanned teaming.

Elevating the Pilot and Reshaping the Combat Equation

The strategic intent behind manned-unmanned teaming is to fundamentally reposition the human pilot. Rather than managing every control input, the pilot is elevated to a mission-commander role, directing one or more AI-operated loyal wingmen as high-skill operators of relatively low-cost robotic aircraft. This shift allows the human to focus on tactical judgment, threat assessment, and coordination while the AI handles the demanding flight and weapons-delivery tasks. Loyal wingmen are envisioned to serve multiple combat functions simultaneously—acting as a sensor, a shooter, a weapons carrier, and a cost reducer for the overall force. Defense analysts draw a distinction between these CCAs and traditional unmanned combat aerial vehicles: CCAs are designed as affordable, attritable extensions of a manned platform, providing extended-range strikes, frontline intelligence, and protective layers for crewed assets, while UCAVs are higher-performance machines capable of independent operations in traditional fighter and strike roles. The affordability requirement is critical, as it enables what planners call combat mass—the ability to field and, if necessary, replace multiple drones without the prohibitive cost of losing a crewed aircraft and its pilot.