Swedish company Saab and German defense startup Helsing have conducted combat trials of a Gripen E fighter jet piloted by artificial intelligence, pitted against a real-life human pilot, The War Zone reports. 

The first of these test flights took place on 28 May. By the third combat sortie on 3 June, the AI agent, dubbed Centaur, was ready to engage in a beyond-visual-range (BVR) air battle against a crewed Gripen D fighter.

During the process, the AI agent rapidly accumulated experience and improved its decision-making skills in BVR combat, a battlefield Saab describes as “like playing chess in a supersonic with advanced missiles.”

Saab has confirmed that the Centaur AI system could potentially be expanded to close-range dogfights within visual range (WVR) as well. However, the initial focus remains on BVR engagements, which the company describes as the most critical aspect of air combat, a point reinforced by the ongoing air war in Ukraine.

In a series of dynamic BVR scenarios, the Gripen E’s sensors received target data, and the Centaur AI autonomously executed complex maneuvers on behalf of the test pilot. The culmination of these scenarios saw the AI agent providing the pilot with firing cues for simulated air-to-air weapon launches.

Meanwhile, Marcus Wandt, Saab’s Chief Innovation Officer and a test pilot himself, remarked that the test flights “so far point to the fact that ‘it is not a given’ that a pilot will be able to win in aerial combat against an AI-supported opponent.”

“This is an important achievement for Saab, demonstrating our qualitative edge in sophisticated technologies by making AI deliver in the air,” said Peter Nilsson, head of Advanced Programs within Saab’s Aeronautics business area.

Insights gained from this program will feed into Sweden’s future fighter program, which aims to select one or more next-generation air combat platforms by 2031.

Russia has begun striking targets in Ukraine with “deadly accuracy.” Improved North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles have given Moscow a much-needed source of short-range missiles, Kyrylo Budanov, chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, told The War Zone.

“Initially, with the beginning of the transfer to Russia, they were flying with a deviation of a few kilometers, but now they are exactly hitting the target. This is the result of the common work of Russian and North Korean specialists,” he said.

He also noted that Russia is providing North Korea with technology in exchange for troop and weapons supplies.

“Also, there is the modernization of the aviation means of engagement — long-range air-to-air missiles. Particular technologies on submarines. Unfortunately, ballistic missiles which are carriers of nuclear payloads,” the intelligence chief explained.

Budanov also added that agreements exist to begin establishing production facilities on North Korean territory for manufacturing “Harpy” and Shahed-136 drones, which will lead to changes in the regional military balance between North and South Korea.

Additionally, North Korea supplies Russia with:

• 122mm D-74 guns
• 107mm infantry variant MLRS
• 240mm MLRS
• 170mm M1989 Koksan self-propelled artillery

The latter system performs quite well in combat. It fires from a considerable distance and is quite accurate, Budanov noted.

He added that, according to intelligence data, Pyongyang has transferred 120 such systems to Russia. Budanov believes that supplies of these systems to Russia will continue.

Ukraine is quietly building a new class of weapons — drone-powered cruise missiles that are small, cheap, and deadly. Ukrainian arms expert Bohdan Dolintse told ArmyInform that these new systems blend drone and missile technologies into a hybrid “drone-missile” category.

The development comes in the wake of Operation Web, widely seen as a watershed in modern warfare, where Ukraine used synchronized drone swarms to destroy high-value Russian assets, reshaping global perceptions of non-nuclear deterrence.

Now, Kyiv is scaling up. If serial production is launched, Dolintse says, Ukraine could manufacture hundreds of these precision-guided munitions monthly.

Though still in development or limited deployment, their battlefield potential is vast — from striking air defense and radar sites to disabling critical logistics nodes deep behind enemy lines.

“This is a scalpel — a precise, mobile solution to hit vulnerable yet decisive targets,” Dolintse emphasizes.

Highly modular, these missiles can be launched from aircraft, drones, or ground platforms. Instead of a single $10 million missile, Ukraine envisions waves of compact, lethal munitions that can shift the balance of power in the skies — and the future of warfare itself.