France plans to fly a crewed fighter alongside an AI-powered combat drone in 2028 as part of Hypairion, a national project intended to test artificial intelligence in combat aviation. The French Air Force is developing the effort with the Directorate General for Armament and the Ministerial Agency for Defence AI, known as Amiad. Defense News reported that the 2028 flight will be a full-scale trial of collaborative combat drones operating with fighter aircraft.
Hypairion is designed around open, modular aircraft architectures and AI systems that remain under government control. That approach would give France greater authority over critical functions instead of leaving the armed forces dependent on proprietary systems controlled by individual contractors. Col. Cédric, who leads the Air Force capability-development office, said the project aims to move away from systems that lock sensors and weapons into closed architectures.
The project’s intended control model is central to its design. Amiad will provide sovereign AI capabilities for command and control and mission autonomy. The agency describes mission autonomy as assistance with mission planning, decisions made during flight and post-mission analysis. Hypairion is also expected to support an industrial hub where established aerospace companies and smaller startups can contribute to the program without taking control of its overall architecture.
Under that model, companies could join or leave the effort while the project retains key capabilities in-house. Amiad has used a similar approach in Pendragon, a French Army robotics project that applies AI to coordinate different platforms. Hypairion is intended to let the state integrate technologies from the most capable companies while preserving the ability to adapt the system to military requirements.
The Air Force is beginning the work with two Mirage 2000 fighters at Mont-de-Marsan airbase in southwest France. The aircraft are being modified as AI test beds with an additional computer intended to support testing of different applications by the end of the year. The base hosts the Escadron de chasse et d’expérimentation, a fighter unit dedicated to testing and evaluation, according to the Defense News report.
Early experimentation will not necessarily produce an operational combat capability. The first phase will examine issues including energy consumption and the ability of systems to interface with one another. Potential applications include optimizing flight paths and helping with tactical decisions, such as when to employ air-to-air or air-to-ground weapons.
The unmanned aircraft planned for the 2028 flight will serve as a test platform. It may not become the drone ultimately selected as the future wingman for the Rafale under the aircraft’s planned F5 standard. The experimentation is expected to help France identify an appropriate collaborative platform later in the decade.
The Directorate General for Armament has set 2033 as the target date for the first version of Rafale F5, described as a major mid-life overhaul. Before that standard arrives, France plans to work with collaborative platforms under the current F4 standard. Rafale’s existing architecture includes an initial level of openness through a tablet connected to the mission system, while F5 is intended to expand the data available to the tablet, provide access to mission-system computing resources and improve links with onboard communications and data systems.
Those changes could allow a Rafale to control autonomous combat platforms before the F5 standard is deployed. The Rafale program team also identifies computing capacity and system openness as priorities, because future aircraft will need to process complex calculations while allowing the armed forces to tailor AI to operational requirements.
France’s Air Force does not envision replacing all crewed aircraft with unmanned systems. The project’s stated approach keeps weapon-deployment decisions with human operators because AI can make mistakes. AI may augment or supplement crews, but assessment of the operational situation and tactical judgment are to remain human responsibilities.
Hypairion’s road map will cover concepts of use, doctrine, workforce needs and equipment, leading to the planned 2028 trial. The project is also intended to help determine how a fighter squadron could operate by 2035 or 2040 if manned and unmanned systems become integrated into routine operations.