HAL CATS Warrior

CATS Warrior is an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which is intended to operate alongside/ahead of the mother ship as a loyal wingman. CATS Warrior is the first loyal wingman showcased, at least in mockup form, with air-to-air missiles. Warrior can take off and land autonomously. The Warrior is primarily envisioned for Indian Air Force use and a similar, smaller, version will be designed for the Indian Navy. It could be used both as a forward-deployed scout for regular aircraft as well as for directly engaging enemy targets. CATS Warrior can take off on its own from the ground and target enemy locations. The Warrior is being armed with air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, which would be used to hit targets on the ground or in the air. CATS Warrior has a combat radius of 400km, after completing the mission CATS Warrior will return to base. If required, the CATS Warrior can sacrifice itself to crashing into the target in long-range combat missions; it can go up to 800km and hit a target like a kamikaze drone

Multiple Warriors will be commanded by a single Tejas. Currently Tejas mothership can control maximum four warrior loyal wingman drones. The idea is to maximize the effectiveness of every mission while reducing the potential of losing the lives of precious pilots since they would be accompanied by the drones which would protect them. The Warrior, is designed as a stealth platform, being small It has inherently less surface area, the airframe is built using composite radar absorbent structures allows the UAV to operate in stealth mode. Warrior airframe is shaped for stealth, nose cone, serpentine air intake on top of the airframe; weapon bays, conformal data link antennas etc are some of the stealth features. Weapons bay doors, radome etc are zigzagged to scatter the radar waves away from the radar source. Exhaust nozzle is specifically designed for defeat high frequency radars which target the drones from behind. The corrugated nozzle of warrior also helps to reduce the IR signature. These stealth features would allow it to evade being picked up by radar, which makes its detection challenging for contemporary systems.

The Warrior is equipped with an
1 :electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) payload
2: active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar (probably uttam radar’s less TR module version)11
3:inertial navigational unit
4: and electronic warfare suite for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and combat operations

Warrior will serve as a ‘sensor amplifier’ for the LCA, flying out ahead of the manned aircraft and using its sensors to feed information back to LCA,” according to HAL test pilot Retd Group Captain H V Thakur He also added that the low radar cross-sectional area, internal payload carrying capability, and composite structure allows the UAV to operate in stealth mode Flying out ahead of the manned aircraft and using its sensors to feed information back to LCA. All the electronics and other sensors/equipments will acquire from various DRDO/HAL labs