The U.S. Air Force has completed the final high-speed sled test of the Boeing T-7A Red Hawk escape system, a simulated ejection at 550 knots effective airspeed that tested a redesigned canopy fracturing pattern and a modernized ejection seat sequencer. The run closes the program’s sled test matrix and moves the trainer toward final qualification of its escape system.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) said in an article published on November 4, 2026, that the T-7 Program Office had executed the test. The 846th Test Squadron conducted the test at the Holloman High Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, on October 7, 2026. AFLCMC called the test a critical milestone in certifying the trainer’s aircrew safety systems.

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What the final sled test checked

The primary objective was to validate two safety enhancements: a redesigned canopy fracturing system pattern and a modernized ejection seat sequencer, according to AFLCMC. The test used an anthropomorphic test device representing the lightest occupant in the pilot candidate spectrum, which the Air Force said is meant to ensure that the escape system protects the full range of future aviators.

An initial review of high-speed video indicated that the modernized seat sequencer functioned as designed, deploying the stabilizing drogue parachute for an extended duration. AFLCMC said this deployment timing stabilizes the seat during separation, significantly lowering peak loads on the neck and spine and giving a smoother descent. Seat trajectory, acceleration and biometric sensor data remain under formal engineering analysis, so the result is not yet a final qualification.

“Completing this final sled test represents a major achievement in our rigorous qualification process.”

That was Col. Robert Volesky, AFLCMC’s T-7A System Program Manager. “Aircrew safety is our highest priority,” he said. AFLCMC said the event caps a comprehensive test matrix of static and dynamic sled runs, paving the way toward final qualification of the escape system and supporting future production aircraft deliveries.

How the escape system reached this point

The October run follows an earlier high-speed test of the redesigned canopy and seat sequencer. In an article published on May 2, 2025, AFLCMC said the 846th Test Squadron at Holloman ran a high-speed test of the new escape system on April 16, 2025, at 450 knots effective airspeed (KEAS), and that the system met all test objectives.

That test focused on a redesigned canopy ejection system and a new seat sequencer. According to the 2025 article, the redesigned canopy is meant to break apart in a safer pattern and protected the test mannequins from shattered glass, while the modernized sequencer deployed the stabilizing parachute for a longer duration to reduce the risk of neck and spine injury. Initial results then showed the system protected both lighter-weight and heavier-weight mannequins. AFLCMC said at the time that another test was scheduled for August.

Compared with the April 2025 run, the final test was conducted at 550 knots rather than 450 knots effective airspeed, with a test device representing the lightest occupant in the pilot candidate range, according to the two AFLCMC articles.

Production and what comes next

The escape system work runs alongside the move into production. On May 4, 2026, Boeing said the U.S. Air Force had announced that the T-7A reached Milestone C in its development life cycle, which allows the program to proceed to low-rate initial production of aircraft for instructor and student training. “Milestone C positions us to start low-rate initial production this year,” said Andy Adams, vice president and program manager of Boeing T-7 Programs.

In 2018, the Air Force awarded Boeing a $9.2 billion contract for 351 T-7A advanced trainers, 46 simulators and support, according to Boeing, which builds the aircraft at its St. Louis, Missouri site. The T-7A replaces the T-38 trainer, which Boeing said has been in service since the 1960s. AFLCMC said the Red Hawk is designed to train pilots and weapon systems officers for 4th, 5th and emerging 6th-generation fighters and bombers, working with an advanced Ground Based Training System.

The next step named by AFLCMC is final qualification of the escape system, once the engineering analysis of the October data is complete. The Air Force did not give a date for that qualification or for the first production deliveries.

The U.S. Air Force has added funding to Joby Aviation’s autonomous flight contracts, bringing its total commitment to nearly $37 million and raising the ceiling on Joby’s operational testing contract to $50 million. The money is aimed at autonomy software development and expanded operational testing in the Pacific.

Joby announced the expansion in a press release distributed on November 4, 2026, the same day it reported third quarter 2026 results. The agreements cover software integration and operational testing across two primary contracts with AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm, and follow a cross-country tour in which a Joby-equipped Cessna Caravan logged 6,665 miles of autonomous flights, with landings in 11 states and integrated operations across 24 states.

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What the Air Force is paying for

According to the release, the funding supports autonomy software development and expanded operational testing in the Pacific as the Air Force moves toward sustained autonomous logistics operations. Joby said the new contracts will focus on follow-on Pacific military exercises, and that the funding also supports ongoing design updates and safety reviews to extend the autonomy stack’s capabilities.

The two figures in the announcement measure different things. Nearly $37 million is the Air Force’s total commitment, while $50 million is a ceiling on the operational testing contract. In the forward-looking statements attached to the release, Joby lists Air Force funding and appropriations limits, and the possibility that a contract ceiling is not reached, among the risks to its plans.

JoeBen Bevirt, Founder and CEO of Joby Aviation, called the expansion “a powerful validation of the adaptability of Joby’s autonomy stack.” He said the system was designed to be platform-agnostic and that the funding “will accelerate our path to sustained uncrewed operations.”

Kate Brown, Contested Logistics Tactical Airlift Lead at AFWERX, said the goal is to “sustain cargo operations in contested environments” while reducing risk to aircrews and preserving crewed aircraft for the missions that need them.

From Agile Flag to a coast-to-coast tour

The autonomy system at the center of the contracts came to Joby through its acquisition of the autonomy division of Xwing, which Joby completed in June 2024. In an August 26, 2024 release, Joby said that team flew a fully autonomous Cessna 208B Grand Caravan for more than 3,900 miles between military bases and public airports in California and Nevada during the Air Force’s Agile Flag 24-3 exercise, with a safety pilot monitoring the aircraft. The aircraft completed a fully autonomous taxi, takeoff and landing at each of 9 locations, after the Xwing team had logged more than 2,800 miles of fully autonomous flight in Agile Flag 24-1 earlier that year.

“The return on investment for the U.S. Air Force with this technology is significant,” Col. Max Bremer, Air Mobility Command Special Access Program management officer, said in that release, explaining that using the system for smaller cargo frees larger cargo aircraft for tasks such as moving large parts or engines. According to Joby, the system delivered critical replacement parts 24 hours faster than conventional logistics during Agile Flag, and during REFORPAC exercises in August 2025 an aircraft in Hawaii was operated remotely from Guam, nearly 4,000 miles away. AirPro News covered Joby’s role in the REFORPAC 2025 exercise at the time.

The cross-country tour, part of Joby’s 2026 Electric Skies campaign, took the aircraft from Concord, California, to North Carolina’s Outer Banks with zero control inputs from its onboard safety pilot. Joby said in its September 18, 2026 release that the 3,199-mile eastbound flight was supervised remotely from Joby’s Autonomy Headquarters in California and from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, where the aircraft demonstrated representative military flight operations. AirPro News reported on the transcontinental autonomous flight the following day.

Across the full multi-leg tour, Joby said the aircraft performed fully autonomous taxiing, takeoffs, route navigation and landings under remote supervision from up to 2,537 miles away. The September release gave a remote supervision distance of up to 2,323 miles for the eastbound transcontinental flight. A ground-based operator monitors each flight, updates routes and communicates with air traffic control in real time, and the autonomy stack has completed more than 400 fully autonomous flights, according to Joby.

Where defense fits in Joby’s business

Joby is best known for its piloted electric air taxi, and the November 4 release presents the autonomy work as part of a dual-use strategy covering defense logistics, cargo and emergency response. Its autonomous J208 operations are part of the White House-backed eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) in Utah and North Carolina. North Carolina tour flights supported the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s eLIFT-NC initiative for statewide healthcare logistics, and western flights contributed to the Utah Department of Transportation’s multi-state uFLY coalition, which is evaluating high-altitude, extreme-environment airspace integration for the FAA.

Joby also plans to acquire Resonant Sciences, with closing expected early in 2027. In its third quarter 2026 results release, filed with the SEC on November 4, Joby described Resonant Sciences as an EBITDA-positive defense technology company with more than $100 million in trailing twelve-month revenue and said the deal would significantly expand its defense business. Closing conditions for the planned Resonant Sciences acquisition remain outstanding, according to the filing.

The same results release put third quarter 2026 revenue at $55 million, primarily from Blade, the passenger transportation business Joby operates in the United States and Europe. Joby said it is in the fifth and final stage of FAA type certification and has 17 aircraft in production.

Saab AB has successfully demonstrated autonomous Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air combat capabilities using proprietary artificial intelligence agents integrated into a Gripen E fighter aircraft. The Swedish aerospace manufacturer officially unveiled the in-house technology on November 3, 2026, following approximately two years of airborne testing.

In a press release issued today, Saab confirmed the flight trials mark a critical step toward developing collaborative combat aircraft networks, where crewed and uncrewed systems operate as a coordinated force. The milestone underscores the company’s strategy to maintain sovereign control over its technology stack rather than relying entirely on external software providers.

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Sovereign AI development and the Sferical facility

Saab centralized its artificial intelligence development under the AI Fighter Pilot Academy (AIFPA), an infrastructure designed to create, train, and evaluate AI agents. The department driving this initiative, Saab Advanced Programs, features a workforce where 40 percent of the staff hold doctorate-level qualifications, according to Aviation International News.

Peter Nilsson, Head of Advanced Programs at Saab Aeronautics, emphasized the operational focus of the project.

“We have not only built our own AI agents, but we have also flown them. This demonstrates our capability to develop AI agents that can be integrated into operational fighter aircraft. The future of air combat will not be defined by individual platforms acting alone, but by networks of crewed and uncrewed systems working together as a coordinated force. Through our ownership of the entire technology stack, we are building the capabilities needed for that future.”

To support this development, Saab recently implemented the Sferical AI facility in Linköping, Sweden. Part-owned by Saab, Ericsson, and AstraZeneca, the sovereign computing asset utilizes Nvidia’s DGX SuperPOD architecture. Aviation International News reported that the facility is powered by 1,152 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GB300 graphics processing units. This computing power allows Saab to run a one-hour flight test simulation one billion times in the same period, compared to just 1,200 times in a traditional central processing unit environment.

Speaking to Breaking Defense, Nilsson outlined the primary challenge facing the AIFPA following the successful flight trials.

“The harder question is how we turn this success into a dependable capability that can learn, improve, and be relevant over time… that is the true purpose of the AI Fighter Pilot Academy.”

Gripen E architecture and testing timeline

Saab, which employs approximately 31,000 people globally, utilized the Gripen E as the primary testbed for its AI agents. The aircraft features a software-defined architecture that segregates mission software from flight-critical functions. This separation enables the rapid integration and testing of new technologies without requiring dedicated experimental platforms or compromising safety of flight.

Prior to unveiling its in-house agents, Saab collaborated with third-party developers to validate the aircraft’s autonomous potential. On May 28, 2025, a Gripen E trials aircraft flew for the first time with the Centaur AI agent developed by Helsing, demonstrating initial BVR air combat capabilities.

Following these third-party trials, Saab transitioned to testing its proprietary agents. The company briefed journalists on the readiness of its in-house AI agents for operational deployment on October 30, 2026, before the official public unveiling on November 3, 2026.

Collaborative combat and future integration

The integration of artificial intelligence into combat aircraft aligns with a broader industry shift toward Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) concepts. Defence contractors globally are developing networks where crewed fighters command uncrewed loyal wingman platforms.

Saab is actively testing the sensor networks required for these collaborative operations. On October 28, 2026, Saab and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) successfully flight-tested an unmanned airborne early warning (AEW) capability, integrating Saab’s LoyalEye radar with an MQ-9B unmanned UAV.

Looking ahead, Saab anticipates that the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) and the Swedish Air Force will absorb these AI agents into real-world operations within months or single digits of years, according to Aviation International News. In the interim, Saab plans to expand the capabilities of its agents by flying them in a broader range of scenarios, establishing the foundation for future uncrewed platforms.

AirPro News analysis

Saab’s insistence on sovereign, in-house artificial intelligence development contrasts with competitors who heavily outsource to commercial technology firms. By owning the entire technology stack, Saab positions itself to offer highly secure, exportable AI packages free from third-party licensing bottlenecks or foreign regulatory hurdles. The massive investment in the Sferical AI facility indicates we are seeing a shift from experimental AI flight tests to industrialized, mass-scale tactical training for autonomous systems. If Saab can deliver on its timeline for Swedish Air Forces integration, the Gripen E could become one of the first Western fighters to field operational, combat-ready AI agents in frontline service.