Recently, South Korea released an unmanned wingman system, which has attracted attention from the outside world. At present, in addition to South Korea, Russia, the United States, Türkiye, France and other countries are developing unmanned wingmen, and accelerating the pace of coordinated operations with the five generation aircraft. Unmanned wingmen, as an emerging military equipment, are changing the form of warfare. It not only represents an important trend in the evolution of unmanned aerial vehicle technology towards the main battlefield technology, but also indicates the development direction of manned unmanned system collaborative combat. Unmanned wingmen are favored by military powers around the world due to their low cost and high efficiency. What is the current status of its technological development and can it meet the requirements of actual combat? This article provides an in-depth analysis of this. The new focus of air combat technology development, unmanned wingman, as the name suggests, refers to unmanned aerial vehicles that can cooperate with manned fighter jets in combat. They usually have a certain degree of autonomy and can perform various tasks such as reconnaissance, strike, and electronic warfare. Compared with traditional drones, unmanned wingmen emphasize more on interaction and coordination with manned vehicles to enhance overall combat effectiveness. The concept of unmanned wingman first appeared in the late 20th century with the widespread use of drones on the battlefield, but the true concept of unmanned wingman was proposed by the US military in the early 21st century. In 2016, the US Department of Defense launched the "Loyal Companion" program, aiming to use artificial intelligence technology to enable drones to cooperate with fifth generation aircraft in combat. The development of unmanned wingmen has gone through an evolution from simple remote control to autonomous flight. Early drones were mostly remote-controlled aircraft, mainly used for reconnaissance and other operations. In the era of information warfare, the application of drones has expanded to fields such as precision strikes and intelligence gathering. In recent years, with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and sensor technology, unmanned wingers have shown a trend towards miniaturization and stealth. Miniaturization and stealth enable unmanned wingmen to have stronger survival and combat capabilities in high threat environments. At the same time, the communication sensors and artificial intelligence algorithm chips equipped on the unmanned wingman enable it to respond quickly and perform diverse tasks in complex battlefield environments. Currently, countries with unmanned wingman research and development capabilities or deployed related systems are mainly those with advanced military technology. In this field, the US military is at the forefront. The US military's "loyal wingman" project has entered the verification phase, representing the gradual maturity of the aircraft model. The "Loyal Companion" project, developed in collaboration between Australia and Boeing, achieved its maiden flight in 2020. Russia launches the "Hunter" drone and plans to cooperate with the Su-57 in combat. The French "Neuron" unmanned aerial vehicle will operate in conjunction with the sixth generation aircraft jointly developed by France and Germany. In addition, Türkiye and South Korea have also launched unmanned wingman programs or representative models. The above situation indicates that unmanned wingmen have become a new focus of air combat technology development. From the perspective of technological development trends, the role of unmanned wingmen in future warfare is diverse and irreplaceable as they evolve towards multifunctional combat platforms. As a component of manned unmanned cooperative operations, the emergence of unmanned wingmen greatly expands the flexibility of aerial combat. Unmanned wingmen can conduct reconnaissance, jamming, and strike missions deep into enemy air defense zones under the command of manned fighter jets. This strategy, which combines the decision-making ability of manned aerial vehicles with the execution ability of unmanned aerial vehicles, not only keeps pilots away from danger, but also improves combat efficiency. Unmanned wingmen can also serve as "ammunition depots" for manned fighter jets, providing them with firepower support. When unmanned wingmen carry small diameter bombs or air to ground missiles, they can provide fire support for manned vehicles. At the same time, unmanned wingmen also perform well in electronic warfare and decoy missions, disrupting enemy signals or dispersing enemy air defense firepower by carrying electronic jamming devices or simulating radar signals from manned and unmanned aircraft. From the development of unmanned wingman projects in multiple countries, significant progress has been made in unmanned wingman technology. For example, the US military's "loyal wingman" has dynamic route planning and battlefield damage assessment capabilities, and can complete missions in GPS restricted environments. The Russian "Hunter" drone emphasizes stealth and heavy strike capabilities, and plans to carry anti-ship missiles or air-to-air missiles, becoming a powerful supplement to the Su-57 fighter jet. The Australian 'Loyal Companion' project focuses on modular design, which can quickly switch mission payloads to adapt to battlefield needs. The above technological advancements reflect the evolution of unmanned wingmen from a single combat platform to a multifunctional combat system. Technical bottlenecks limit combat effectiveness. Although unmanned wingmen have shown great potential for combat applications, their development faces several technical bottlenecks. The maturity of autonomous technology needs to be improved. Although artificial intelligence endows unmanned wingmen with certain autonomous decision-making capabilities, in the complex and ever-changing battlefield environment, the autonomous decision-making algorithms that support the operation of artificial intelligence technology may make mistakes due to a lack of sufficient data. The misjudgment of the US military's "collaborative combat aircraft" during testing highlights the limitations of artificial intelligence in practical environments. Secondly, the reliability of communication needs to be strengthened. In electronic warfare or strong interference environments, the communication data link between unmanned wingmen and manned vehicles may be interrupted, leading to a decrease in collaborative combat effectiveness. Thirdly, stealth technology has increased the design cost and maintenance difficulty of unmanned wingers, which is undoubtedly a major obstacle for countries with limited budgets. Technological advancements contribute to the resolution of the aforementioned issues. On the one hand, the application of big data and machine learning provides opportunities to enhance the autonomy and reliability of unmanned wingers; On the other hand, low-cost manufacturing technology provides the possibility to reduce the production cost of unmanned wingers. For example, the US military's "Clone" program adopts a low-cost strategy to achieve large-scale production and deployment of low-cost drones. In the future, the development of unmanned wingmen will exhibit characteristics of systematization, intelligence, and high energy. Systematization means that unmanned wingers will be integrated with more combat platforms, forming a swarm or multi-level collaborative combat network; Intelligence is reflected in the further improvement of autonomous capabilities, which may achieve completely unmanned combat decision-making; High energy refers to more advanced power systems and weapon equipment, such as laser weapons or hypersonic missiles. This development trend does not mean that unmanned wingers will replace manned aircraft, and their combat status still tends to be auxiliary roles rather than main combat forces. As an important innovation in modern military technology, unmanned wingmen have demonstrated strong combat advantages. At the same time, technological bottlenecks such as insufficient autonomy and communication vulnerabilities remind people not to overestimate the combat capabilities of unmanned wingmen. With the breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and manufacturing technology, unmanned wingmen are expected to make greater progress in the direction of intelligence and systematization, and their combat capabilities will also be verified in actual combat. (New Society)