[4][5] The primary aim is to make multiple advanced aerial platforms that can act as atmospheric satellites for high altitude surveillance, perform autonomous deep penetration precision strikes from standoff distance with maximum firepower while reduce human error and the threat on life.
[6][7] HAL Combat Air Teaming is a composite amalgamation of a manned fighter aircraft acting as "mother ship" supported by number of swarming UAV and UCAVs.
[8][9] The objective is to make artificially intelligent (AI) high altitude surveillance drone, air launch platform and loitering munitions with full situational awareness to take out enemy targets from longer distance without human intervention.
From 2017, the Indian Air Force (IAF), HAL and Newspace Research & Technologies quietly started working on CATS project beginning with the subsystems development.
[11] It is to encourage and help local startups develop advance technologies and products for future requirements of the Indian Armed Forces such as long range loitering munitions, stealth coating etc.
[5][14] Being one of the winner of iDEX, Newspace Research floated an idea for new generation autonomous aerial platforms that can achieve battlefield dominance and control inside enemy territory.
[5] Till February 2021, HAL already invested resources on CATS programme from an allocated ₹400 crore internal budget with Indian Air Force planning to join at later stage of development cycle.
[7][15] The main component in CATS is the Tejas Mark 1A aircraft which could be modified with additional command & control interface for this purpose which will then act as Mothership for Air teaming eXploitation (MAX).
[24][25] In 2021, all the systems are currently under various stages of design and development which will be jointly produced by HAL as the leading project agency in collaboration with National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) of DRDO and Newspace Research & Technologies.
[1][10] In January 2021, a swarm of 75 drones were flown to showcase the technological maturity of distributed coordinated control scheme based on heterogeneous roles at Army Command Headquarters (ACHQ) with the goal to gradually increase the numbers to 1,000.
The control system under joint development with the Indian Army and NewSpace Research & Technologies will be used later on ALFA-S.[28][29] CATS Warrior will be powered by an improved version of HAL PTAE-7 in a twin turbojet engine configuration which was previously used in DRDO Lakshya.
[7] It is designed as a low observable standoff air-launched cruise missile that can be integrated into CATS MAX, Mirage 2000, Jaguar or Su-30MKI and will consist of an interchangeable weapon carriage section based on mission profile that can carry 250 kg (550 lb) of unitary warhead or cluster munition with a striking range of 200–300 km (120–190 mi).
[16] It will use multiple global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and terrain contour matching (TERCOM) with mid-flight updates for guidance and an imaging seeker that can help in automatic target acquisition during terminal phase.
[5][10][46] Infinity is designed to be equipped with terrain mapping camera and will have the capability of producing airborne real time cueing hyperspectral enhanced reconnaissance for deep strike aerial missions inside enemy territory.
[48][49] The Infinity platform is built as an Indian alternative for civilian and military drones like Maraal UAVs, Facebook Aquila, Airbus Zephyr and AVIC Morning Star of China.
[47] As of July 2021, HAL already started works on further improving the design of CATS Infinity with NewSpace Research & Technologies and is waiting for the approval from Ministry of Defence (MoD).
[56] NRT intends to conduct additional endurance studies using the HAPS scaled model before concentrating on the full-scale version, by attempting a continuous 7-day flight at an altitude of 20 km (12 mi) above mean sea level (AMSL) at a cruising speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).