IFC 2024: Saab, Helsing partner to get AI on Gripen E combat aircraft

Saab and Helsing are working to get AI onto the Gripen E (pictured) combat aircraft in the near term, announcing Project Beyond on 6 November. (Saab)

Saab and Helsing are partnering to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) capability on board the Gripen E combat aircraft.

Announced at the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2024 in Berlin on 6 November, Project Beyond is geared at exploiting in the near term the advanced capabilities AI has to offer, rather than going through the usual long development cycles that can take years or decades.

“AI is not the future – we all have AI in our aircraft already – but harnessing the power of partnerships with new companies that are doing things radically faster than a lot of the other companies is why we are partnering with Helsing,” Johan Segertoft, vice-president, head of Business Unit Gripen at Saab, said.

“When we are talking about deploying [Helsing's] software in our aircraft in what we call Project Beyond, we are not talking about a separate computer. We are talking about something we are dropping into the heart of the Gripen – utilising all the data that we have and fuelling that software in the actual Gripen E, not a test aircraft,” he added.

As Segertoft noted, Project Beyond is part of a wider drive within Saab to reduce pilot workload through software that can be turned around in days and weeks rather than months and years. “Imagine as a pilot if an engineer says, ‘I can automate that for you,' you probably would like that. Now, imagine if you ask that engineer, ‘When can I have it in my aircraft?' and he or she replies, ‘Tomorrow'. This is not for 2040, we actually have already done this.”