Unmanned combat platforms will be the main combat force in the future airfield. Cognitive navigation is a new kind of navigation technology which is proposed for the need of intelligent autonomous operation control of the unmanned platform. In this paper, we firstly made an indepth analysis, proposed the basic connotation, framework structure and information processing flow, and analyzed the new navigation abilities of cognitive navigation. Secondly, we explored a new approach to cognitive navigation using braininspired technology. Lastly, we proposed the key technologies needed to be solved to realize cognitive navigation. This paper provided a theoretical framework for the realization of intelligent autonomous capability of unmanned combat platform, and had strong guiding significance.