5 ms·
Saab has unveiled its A3 collaborative combat aircraft concept
- lenerdenator 2mo agoIf we're going to expend time and effort on finding new and exciting ways to destroy other members of our species, it might be worth noting that the major change in battles over the last decade seems to have been flooding the zone with cheap, micro-to-small drones, not something like this. That being said, perhaps we find something more productive to do with our time as humans?
- rbanffy 2mo ago> not something like this When all you make are hammers, all your enemies look like nails.
- bluGill 2mo agoBe careful that you're not able to fight the next war because all your effort is working on solving the problems of the past war when your enemy has found a better way around it. It would be nice if humans could find ways to not kill each other, but the reality is humans have a very poor track record and you would be a fool to not put at least some effort into defending yourself.
- BurningFrog 2mo agoWe have found a way to not kill each other! Rich free market democracies don't fight wars against each other.
- c0balt 2mo agoThis might have to be put into the context that they do in fact move the conflict over resources to economic wars. They also actively engage in wars over ressources when they think they can win outside of MAD, see U. S. vs Iran. Economic warfare also does in fact kill people. Denying a population, e. g., Cuba, the ability to access medicine/food kills humans just as well as a bullet in the long term. There are various other ways this causes suffering. Different forms of warfare are still warfare, even if you don't to hold a gun for all of them. Being "rich" also requires someone else to be "poor".
- fifilura 2mo agoPerfect is the enemy of good. Market democracy is not perfect but it solves 90% of the problems we'd have otherwise.
- cucumber3732842 2mo ago>Economic warfare also does in fact kill people. Denying a population, e. g., Cuba, the ability to access medicine/food kills humans just as well as a bullet in the long term. Deny them jobs, investment that could create jobs and paths to prosperity. Give them drugs. Shocked Pikachu when they don't like you. Edit: Revised language to be more broadly applicable.
- bryanlarsen 2mo agoThe "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" has been broken 4 times: - NATO v Yugoslavia 1999 - India v Pakistan 1999 - Russia v Georgia 2008 - Russia v Ukraine 2014, 2022
- Tuna-Fish 2mo agoWe unfortunately have not found a way to turn our kleptokratic dictatorship neighbor into one. The greatest failure of the past 20 years was the belief that if we open up trade and grow rich together, rational self-interest will lead to liberalization and peace. Instead, it just gave our enemies more resources to spend on self-destructive imperialist ambitions.
- lenerdenator 2mo agoSame story as always: the goal sounded nice, but no one wanted to do the actual work.
- Tuna-Fish 2mo agoPlenty of people wanted to do the work. Lot of European politicians were desperate to do the work. But it turns out that when a fascist has nukes, there's not much you can do to convince them to not be fascist.
- jayd16 2mo agoSo is the US not democratic enough, not rich enough or not free market enough?
- enaaem 2mo agoAlso a very Christian nation that follows the teachings of Jesus.
- fifilura 2mo agoIn case of war privilieges, your president can act as a dictator. At least the first 90 days, unless he finds a way to reset those days.
- BurningFrog 2mo agoI can't think of any rich free market democracies the US has fought wars against.
- jayd16 2mo agoThe trick is to destabilize their democracies first.
- cucumber3732842 2mo agoThey do it to themselves after people forget what made them rich in the first place.
- fifilura 2mo agoWhich country?
- dghlsakjg 2mo agoWell, as long as they’re poor free market democracies, it’s a mulligan, right? Bonus points if you use special ops or intelligence agencies to kick it off so it doesn’t count as a war.
- enaaem 2mo agoOnly with rational actors. But do not underestimate the stupidity of leaders who thought it would be easy.
- owebmaster 2mo agoNow we just need to figure out how to stop rich free market democracies from invading and bombing poorer countries
- budman1 2mo agoAll of the current conflicts (russia / ukraine, us / iran) would consider drones as a nuisance if: #1. For russia / ukraine neither side has air superiority. If one side had it, they could be obliterating the other side with a constant stream of 500 lb gravity bombs. Each of which has more explosives than 100 drones. #2. For us / iran, the US is unwilling to risk any pilots. And iran has some air defenses in place. The US could drop bombs from up close, gravity mk-82's and jdams every hour for months. Currently they are using standoff weapons which are either minimally effective (drones) or crazy expensive (Tomohawk, Standard Missile, etc.) One B1 gets shot down, and 4 crew get paraded around in downtown Tehran, and what little support trump has will vanish. What am I trying to say? Drones have a place. They don't obsolete anything. The key is to have the weapons available to meet the time in which they are needed.
- _joel 2mo agoYou can't fly a micro drone thousands of km's
- kevin_thibedeau 2mo agoThe DARPA LongShot is a cruise missile barge that deploys another short range missile from its bay. That could be repurposed for other munitions like drones.
- kaffekaka 2mo agoCould not help thinking about the Simpsons truck truck truck: https://youtu.be/5coythRANLA https://youtu.be/5coythRANLA
- wombatpm 2mo agoBut you can smuggle them in containers and trucks to accomplish the same strike thousands of km’s away.
- _joel 2mo agoThat's happened once, which was quite something to pull off, but don't think that's normal.
- Gud 2mo agoBeing armed to the teeth is all you can do when your neighbour is Russia. I just wish more of my Swedish countrymen understood that.
- blini-kot 2mo agoshould've made nice cars instead T_T
- philipov 2mo agoI'm betting that High-End Concept will win the race over Saab.
- heyitsmedotjayb 2mo agothose kids don't stand a chance against such an epic aircraft
- gnatman 2mo agohow about a 2-door 900 turbo revival?
- testfrequency 2mo agoRare moment on HN where I can share that I had a 9-3 Viggen. Such a wonderful car, wish I didn’t need to sell at the time.
- fifilura 2mo agoNamesake of the previous generation SAAB aircraft. https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_37_Viggen https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_37_Viggen
- codeduck 2mo agoAnd I'm just going to link the obligatory link to the video of a Viggen landing, reversing, turning around and taking off again, because that's just how cool the Viggen was. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBE41A9VT3Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBE41A9VT3Q From stationary to airborne in 8 seconds.
- fifilura 2mo agoSame airbase, 10 years later (i.e. a week ago). https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XbTL2kBnN7Q https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XbTL2kBnN7Q The reason it can do this is because of the dispersed road airbase system where you are expected to manage with very few resources. And this is all SAAB military aircraft in one shot https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uel1N2F6jo0 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/uel1N2F6jo0
- testfrequency 2mo agoIncredible to see this in modern years still performing so well. The only Saab story I see is one of innovation and dreaming. Ugh, I miss my 9-3 so much. I still get a kick out of seeing Saabs on the road to this day. Lots of respect to the owners, who I’m sure many continue to live with theirs as they adore it.
- ecshafer 2mo agoThe goal of concept to aircraft in 36 months is admirable. Anduril recently built a jet in a similar timeframe. In the US at least, the last 30 years after defense industry consolidation has caused great stagnation. The F-35 took over a decade and went monstrously over budget, more as a jobs program than as a functional product. Competition showing they can build a jet faster and cheaper is what we need to kick the DoD into gear with the large contractors.
- wbl 2mo agoThe DoD changing its mind several times did not do the F-35 project any favors
- urbsgpw 2mo agoYup, while I'm sure that part of it is that the big players got used to this modus operandi, part of it it just your client not knowing what they want. I work for a financial institution, I see this everyday. Our IT partners just have to wait for our ill-conceived and ill-defined tickets and changes of priorities, keep track of the tickets and the money keeps flowing by itself. I know the analogy isn't perfect, but still. Hats off to Anduril for shaking up the space. Wonder if the Swedes will be able to match them.
- tyre 2mo agoThe client not knowing what it wants, and then having multiple clients who all want different things. Making meaningfully different variants for different branches of the US military seems excessive. Do we really need a VTOL version? I don’t know, maybe. Or maybe it looks cool and we can do without / spend that money elsewhere.
- urbsgpw 2mo agoIt did look friggin cool tho:) But I always preferred the F22. That thing is beautiful and the metrics are insane. But for a while it seemed like there was no peer contender and they stopped the programme.
- JKCalhoun 2mo agoI'm surprised manned aircraft are getting so much money/attention. I suppose you could fly them remotely too though (but pricey for a drone).
- intrasight 2mo agoThe article says this one is autonomous
- JKCalhoun 2mo agoThanks.
- twobitshifter 2mo agois it manned? I assumed autonomous means unmanned? “Saab has unveiled its A3 collaborative combat aircraft concept—an autonomous, tailless, supersonic, double-delta-wing air vehicle”
- jackconsidine 2mo agoTIL Saab was an aerospace company. My Dad had a '98 Saab. It had an "S" button on the shifter. It stood for "speed". When we were 7/8 years old we'd beg him to press it and it would speed up 10mph. I got my license in 2011, immediately took that car onto the highway and pressed the S button. Nothing happened. I went home and read the manual. S stand for sport. It keeps the engine in a higher gear than normal for quicker response
- newsclues 2mo agoAerospace and defence!
- 0bytes 2mo agoYou could argue that the “Swedish Airplane Inc.” (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, SAAB) also does cars.
- dghlsakjg 2mo agoWell… they did cars. Saab hasn’t existed as a car brand since 2016. They split from Saab aerospace in 1989.
- kwanbix 2mo agoWhere is the B from? (S)venska (A)eroplan (A)ktiebolaget and the B? from (b)olaget?
- jjtheblunt 2mo agoAktie Bolaget (stock firm)
- dfxm12 2mo agoThe centerpiece of their advertising campaign at some point was "born from jets" with fighter jets flying in the background.
- sakjur 2mo ago
- taolson 2mo agoI still consider the Saab Draken one of the most beautiful aircraft ever designed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_35_Draken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_35_Draken Especially the top view: https://www.flyajetfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Saab-J35-Draken-2.jpg https://www.flyajetfighter.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Sa...
- throwaway270925 2mo agoAgreed! Though I prefer this picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20171007130915!Saab_Draken_(cropped).jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:20171007130915!Saab_Drake... Reminds me of Apogees Raptor and similar fighter plane DOS games.
- taolson 2mo agoYes, that's an even better picture! Austrian air-force version, right?
- throwaway270925 2mo agoYes, in some special livery in the colors of the austrian flag!