The Air Force is budgeting $28.6 billion over the next five years to develop its next frontline fighter and an armada of autonomous escorts to go with it, according to just-released budget documents. Activities planned for 2025 include building and flying prototypes.
CCA
The Air Force is close to awarding at least two and maybe three contracts for the first increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, Secretary Frank Kendall said. The first deals for Increment 2, despite being still in its early stages, is expected to be ...
The Mitchell Institute conducted a wargame and associated studies to assess how a family of uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft could increase the lethality, survivability, and capacity of the Air Force’s air superiority forces for operations in highly contested environments.
The CCA is envisioned as an uncrewed, relatively low-observable aircraft that can escort or coordinate with crewed aircraft, performing missions such as electronic warfare, defense suppression, as a communications node or as a flying extra magazine of weapons.
The Air Force has awarded contracts to five companies for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program to design and build unmanned, autonomous aircraft to fly alongside manned platforms, a spokesperson confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Anduril, and General Atomics.
The acting official in charge of shaping the future Air Force revealed new details about the service’s plans for its fleet of unmanned wingmen Nov. 15, including the prospect that some of the drones may be aerially refueled to increase their range. The service is ...
There was a secret, multi-agency X-plane program to explore future fighters that paved the way for the Next-Generation Air Dominance program, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed at the POLITICO Defense Summit on Nov. 14.
Testing Collaborative Combat Aircraft—the unmanned, autonomous aircraft that will fly alongside crewed fighters with the goal of beefing up the future Air Force fleet—will require an unprecedented integration of effort from engineers and operators, leaders of the service’s test enterprise said in a recent interview ...
CCA's take shape; Modernizing the Battle Network; Scheduling the new nukes; CMSSF Towberman bids farewell.
In an open letter to Airmen and Guardians on Sept. 5, Kendall directed all the major commands, operating agencies, and other Department of the Air Force activities to conduct a four-month review of their organizations, policies and procedures, in search of improvements that will make ...
Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost oversees the military’s transportation and logistics enterprise, including airlift, aerial refueling, and sealift, using both military and commercial assets.
The first of 10 EC-37 Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft was delivered to the Air Force on Sept. 12, contractors BAE Systems and L3Harris announced. The jets will complement the current EC-130s and will be supplemented by—but not replaced by—the emerging Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) ...
