Leonardo and Baykar Fly the First K-SWARM Live Trials, an M-346FA Commanding an Autonomous Bayraktar KIZILELMA
Rome, 22 June 2026
Key points
- Leonardo and Baykar announced on 22 June 2026 the first live flight trials of K-SWARM, their crewed-uncrewed teaming programme, flown in May at Baykar's flight-test centre at Çorlu, Türkiye
- A Leonardo M-346 Fighter Attack jet acted as the command platform: a Bayraktar KIZILELMA uncrewed combat aircraft autonomously taxied, took off and rejoined the M-346 in formation, after which the crew took control and directed it through position changes, separations and rejoins
- An Italian Air Force T-346A flew chase to monitor the trial; protected radio-frequency exchange ran over Leonardo's GCC Tactical Platform, with the autonomy supplied by Baykar's Smart Fleet algorithms
- The companies called it the first phase of live testing and said more complex trials would follow; the effort is widely reported as falling under their LBA Systems joint venture, though Leonardo's release attributes it to the two firms directly
Leonardo and Baykar announced on 22 June 2026 the first live flight trials of K-SWARM, their crewed-uncrewed teaming programme, in which a crewed M-346 jet commanded an autonomous Bayraktar KIZILELMA through formation manoeuvres in May at Çorlu, Türkiye.
The trials, the first to move K-SWARM from the simulator to live flight, were flown in May 2026 at Baykar's flight-and-test centre in Çorlu and announced on 22 June. A Leonardo-owned M-346 Fighter Attack (M-346FA), with a two-person crew, acted as the command platform. The Bayraktar KIZILELMA — a jet-powered uncrewed combat aircraft — autonomously taxied, took off and rejoined the M-346FA in formation using Baykar's Smart Fleet autonomy, before the crew assumed full control and commanded it through position changes, separations and rejoins. An Italian Air Force T-346A flew chase to monitor and gather data, while Leonardo's GCC Tactical Platform handled protected radio-frequency exchange between the aircraft.
Leonardo described the flights as the first phase of live testing and said further trials of “increasing complexity and additional functions” would follow in the coming months. The pairing draws on the two companies' existing relationship: Leonardo and Baykar formed the 50/50 LBA Systems joint venture, unveiled at the Paris Air Show in June 2025, and trade reporting places K-SWARM under it — though Leonardo's own release attributes the programme to the two parent firms rather than the venture. No weapons were involved, and no in-service date was given.
The proprietary read. Europe's flagship next-generation fighter efforts — the dead Franco-German FCAS and the British-Italian-Japanese GCAP now courting partners — both promise crewed-uncrewed teaming for the late 2030s. An Italian-Turkish pair has just flown a version of it, on a trainer-derived jet and a combat drone that already exist. The near-term teaming capability may not come from the exquisite sixth-generation programmes at all, but from whoever first pairs cheap autonomy with an aircraft already in service. For Leonardo it doubles as a hedge — a stake in collaborative combat air that does not wait on GCAP's timeline or its partner politics, as Signal No. 88 set out.
Related · Leonardo–Baykar partnership
Italy clears the Leonardo–Baykar LBA Systems drone joint venture under golden-power rules (17 June 2026)
Sources: Leonardo · Baykar · Janes.
First reported in Signal No. 88, 23 June 2026.