Opinion: Could our retiring Tigers be transformed into ‘Ghost Tigers’?

What sounds like a far-fetched concept is closer to reality than it originally appears. It’s already forecast that international rivals and allies are exploring the use of outdated military vehicles being fitted with uncrewed guidance systems.

The People’s Republic of China is perhaps the most well-known example, as the People’s Liberation Army Air Force is reportedly converting large numbers of Cold War-era J-6 and J-7 fighter jet airframes into uncrewed one-way attack drones.

Those aircraft are allegedly designed as “missile sponges” to scout, absorb, overwhelm and exhaust enemy anti-air defence assets through a massive volume of obsolete but still threatening expendable aircraft.

Similarly, other countries reportedly exploring the concept include Russia, Ukraine and the US.

The Australian Defence Force itself has previously approved a similar concept for land vehicles, with the Australian Defence Cooperative Research Centre for Trusted Autonomous Systems and British defence company BAE Systems Australia developing advanced artificial intelligence for uncrewed ground vehicles in 2024.

The Trusted Autonomous Ground Vehicles in Electronic Warfare (TAGVIEW) system was designed to allow multiple unmanned ground vehicles to operate simultaneously to carry out mission objectives while identifying and evading potential threats. A demonstration that year saw TAGVIEW installed on several M113 optionally crewed combat vehicles and trialled in a series of planned relocation, logistical, and sweep-search missions.

To see if it was possible, we reached out to CubePilot Global, a Victorian supplier of NDAA-compliant, open-source autopilot systems to several international customers.

“One hundred per cent (possible) if they (Australian Defence Force) would like us to automate them (Tigers), we can definitely do that,” chief executive officer Philip Rowse said.

“Remote control of the 30mm chin gun. Remote reconnaissance via the Strix sights (thermal, roof-mounted sights)? No real limitations. Definitely a project worth exploring. (It) really would depend on how creative the Australian Defence Force and Defence Department want to be.

“When the MH90 (Taipan) was being disposed of, we actually offered to convert them into drones … Sending them to Ukraine as a decoy or whatever.

“We were volunteering to do it at no cost … We didn’t really care how they (the Ukrainians) used them, but as far as automating them, that would have been a fairly straightforward exercise, and we were offering to do that at no cost to Defence. But anyway, that’s a ship that has well and truly sailed.

“(Air-to-air refuelling) in theory, of course, it could be done. We can do teaming, which has already been proven … So refuelling is just flying in formation in a very, very precise way. We’ve never attempted that sort of thing, whereas the rest I can definitely say, yes, we can do it.”

Converting aircraft into one-use “missile sponges” aligns well with the currently in vogue trend of committing to autonomous and expendable airpower.

Advocates for converting older military aircraft into uncrewed platforms could argue that they provide a cheaper and faster way to expand drone capability without building entirely new aircraft.

Theoretically, using existing airframes and engines would be lower-cost initially, with the added benefit of removing pilot risk from the equation and potentially significant force multiplication through attritable “missile barge” concepts.

In addition, older model aircraft can still retain some potency, with international variants like the MiG-19 and J-7 capable of supersonic speeds in level flight, well-understood flight characteristics, and ready-to-use mounts for munitions.

However, the strategy loses some of its appeal when considering airframe fatigue, electronic warfare resilience, and the viability against evolving air defence systems, as well as the resources used initially and the maintenance on older airframes over time that could have been put towards more modern and capable platforms.

The concept of converting retired military aircraft into autonomous systems is certainly appealing, as it centres around the world’s shifting attitude towards cheaper, expendable and autonomous warfare capabilities.

For Australia, the retirement of the Tiger helicopter fleet presents a classic example of whether legacy platforms can still provide value in roles such as reconnaissance, decoy operations, or autonomous strike missions.