Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall caught a ride in the front seat of a modified, artificial intelligence-piloted F-16 on May 2, a high-profile show of confidence in the service’s autonomous technologies—and another key step in maturing that technology for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
CCA
The Air Force only expects to field about 100 Collaborative Combat Aircraft during the next five years, but that the tempo of the program will yield new contracts about every two years, Secretary Frank Kendall said.
While none of the major aircraft contractors were selected to develop the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, all three say they are seeking further autonomous aircraft work for the Navy, foreign partners, or in the classified arena, and maybe future versions of the CCA itself.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force ...
Even as the Air Force prepares to award more contracts for Collaborative Combat Aircraft in the coming months and field them in the next few years, the service is still considering how its Airmen will interact with and operate the unmanned “wingman” drones, the head of ...
An autonomously-piloted F-16 will fly this year with Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on board, giving the service’s top civilian an up-close look at a critical effort for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
Three F-16 fighters landed at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on April 1. Soon enough, they'll be modified and flying again to test autonomous technologies key to Collaborative Combat Aircraft and other key programs, the Air Force said April 2.
WORLD: Budget: Air Force Gets More; Space Force Gets Cut; Shrinking Aircraft Inventory.
William LaPlante said there’s been “significant improvement” in the program over the last decade, and program leaders can now “focus on the future of the F-35, instead of the past.”
Three decades of underfunding and deferred modernization have left the Air Force ill-equipped for peer conflict, and there’s only one way to fix that: Spend big.
It’s possible two distinct solutions could emerge from this stage, one high end, the other more basic.
The Air Force has long embraced remotely piloted aircraft (RPA or drones) for over-the-horizon ISR and one-off strike missions and over two decades has come to see them as central in that role, General Atomics executive David Alexander said at a Hudson Institute event. But, ...
