Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA) unveils FWD Supreme Lite, India’s first AI-piloted fighter demonstrator

Key facts

• Indian defence startup Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA) has unveiled FWD Supreme Lite, a flight technology demonstrator for its AI-piloted fighter aircraft programme.
• FWD Supreme Lite is a approximately 250-kg-class demonstrator currently progressing through airframe development, system integration and ground testing.
• FWDA plans the first flight of FWD Supreme Lite in the third quarter of 2026.
• FWD Supreme Lite is intended to validate the aerodynamic configuration, flight architecture and key technologies for the larger FWD Supreme aircraft family.
• The FWD Supreme family is built around FWDA’s Mobbing Doctrine, which proposes deploying larger numbers of AI-piloted fighter aircraft to create numerical, tactical and economic asymmetry.
• FWD Supreme is designed and manufactured in India and positioned by FWDA as an indigenous entrant into the emerging AI-piloted fighter race.
• FWDA is exploring Rocket Assisted Take-Off (RATO) capability for the Supreme family to enable operations from shorter or austere launch locations.
• FWDA has also announced the Kaal Bhairava E2A2 programme, described as India’s first AI-powered Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Autonomous Combat Aircraft, with up to 30 hours endurance and 3,000 km range.