Saab AI agent controls Gripen E autonomously in BVR combat scenarios

Saab has flight-tested artificial intelligence (AI) agents developed entirely in-house on a Gripen E fighter, with one agent taking control of the aircraft during beyond-visual-range (BVR) combat scenarios, the company announced on November 3, 2026.

Saab has flown AI on the Gripen E before, but until now, it had relied on an outside partner. In May and June 2025, the Swedish manufacturer tested Centaur, an AI agent developed by German defense software company Helsing, as part of its Project Beyond program.

The latest tests use AI agents developed by Saab itself, along with the training environments and tools used to build them.

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How Saab trains its AI fighter pilots

A Saab Gripen E fighter equipped for artificial intelligence flight testing. (Credit: Saab)

The agents were developed by Saab’s Advanced Programs business unit through what the company calls its AI Fighter Pilot Academy.

Most of the training takes place in simulators, where the agents work through different air combat scenarios and accumulate millions of simulated flight hours. Their decisions are continuously assessed against a set of objectives, allowing Saab to refine how they respond to different situations.

Saab has now taken that work into the air. It says one of its agents successfully controlled a Gripen E during BVR combat scenarios, although it has shared few details about the flights, including when they took place, how many sorties were flown, or what the AI was flying against.

The Gripen E’s software architecture is central to Saab’s approach. Because the aircraft can accommodate new software without major hardware changes, the company can test AI directly on a fighter already in service rather than build a separate experimental aircraft.

The aim is not necessarily to replace the pilot. Saab sees several possible uses for its agents, from assisting crews in the cockpit to controlling uncrewed aircraft flying alongside manned fighters.

Training the agents also requires considerable computing power. Some of that capacity comes from Sferical AI, a Swedish sovereign AI initiative in which Saab is a founding partner.

“We have not only built our own AI agents, but we have also flown them,” said Peter Nilsson, head of Advanced Programs at Saab’s Aeronautics business area.

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From Gripen E to Sweden’s next fighter

The work comes as Saab prepares for a future in which crewed and uncrewed combat aircraft will increasingly operate together.

On September 9, 2026, Saab announced that Sweden’s Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) had awarded it a contract worth approximately SEK 2.9 billion ($303 million) to develop technology demonstrators and study future crewed and uncrewed fighter concepts. The work runs from 2026 to 2028 and takes Sweden’s future fighter project into its next phase.

A month earlier, Saab had unveiled a full-scale model of its A3-001 uncrewed combat aircraft concept. The company plans to fly demonstrators with fighter-like characteristics before 2030.

Saab has not explicitly connected its new AI agents to the FMV contract; however, this technology could eventually play a role in the uncrewed aircraft it is developing. The company plans to enhance the capabilities of its AI agents and test them in more complex flight scenarios, utilizing the same development infrastructure that will support future uncrewed combat aircraft.

Helsing, meanwhile, has moved into aircraft development itself. In September 2025, it unveiled the CA-1 Europa, an uncrewed combat aircraft designed from the outset to be controlled by Centaur.

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