Controlling the air domain is an imperative if the nation and U.S. allies are to be successful in future operations.
CCA
The Air Force’s request for funding for the Next Generation Air Dominance program is slashed nearly a third—some $550 million—in the House Armed Services Committee chairman's mark of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. But while the amount of the reduction roughly matches what the ...
China has structured its military to defeat the U.S. “kill chain”—the sequence of steps needed to spot and destroy particular targets—and the Air Force must now ensure its process is agile and resilient, largely by investing in new platforms and networks, an expert from the ...
The Air Force plans to get production of the classified AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile underway this year and will equip its new Collaborative Combat Aircraft with the weapon, senior USAF leaders said at a Senate Armed Services Hearing.
A GAO official told the House Armed Services Committee that the Pentagon still doesn’t have a portfolio-wide plan for tactical aviation, which would help itself and Congress identify true priorities and avoid duplication of effort. He also said the agency is worried that the F-35’s ...
At least 20 new airplane programs—including a handful that are variants—are in some stage of planning or development. If sustained, this airplane-building campaign will lower the average age of the fleet, increase its size, and enhance its ability to be upgraded rapidly.
The Biden administration is requesting $259.3 billion for the Department of the Air Force in its fiscal 2024 budget, an increase of more than $9 billion or about 4 percent over this year.
The Collaborative Combat Aircraft will be operational in the late 2020s, several years before the Next-Generation Air Dominance family of systems, Air Force officials told the House Armed Services tactical aviation panel. The CCAs will first be “shooters,” then electronic warfare platforms, then sensors, in ...
Though touted as “loyal wingmen,” Collaborative Combat Aircraft may not always be paired with crewed aircraft and may function only in concert with one another or weapons in “swarms,” the better to complicate an enemy’s ability to track and counter them, senior Air Force CCA ...
The Air Force is asking for about $6 billion to develop Collaborative Combat Aircraft over the future years defense plan, up from a get-started amount of nearly $400 million in fiscal 2024. One of the first types of CCAs will be for “spectrum warfare,” but ...
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall clarified what the service wants from its future fleet of Collaborative Combat Aircraft fleet, saying the service seeks a single type of airframe customizable to the mission with modular elements. He also said the final inventory could be twice as ...
The Air Force's “4+1” fighter plan is rapidly becoming the “4” plan as the service retires A-10s faster than it expected to, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. said March 15. The retirements are needed to pay for new systems to keep USAF ...

