Collaborative combat aircraft

Collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) is a US program for unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) that is considered broadly equivalent to a loyal wingman. CCAs are intended to operate in collaborative teams with the next generation of manned combat aircraft, including sixth-generation fighters and bombers such as the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider. Unlike the conventional UCAVs, the CCA incorporates artificial intelligence (AI), denoted an "autonomy package", increasing its survivability on the battlefield. It is still expected to cost much less than a manned aircraft with similar capabilities. The US Air Force plans to spend more than $6 billion on its CCA programs from 2023 to 2028. The success of the CCA program may lessen the need for additional manned squadrons.

Characteristics
A CCA is a military drone with an onboard AI control system and capability to carry and deliver a significant military weapons load. Its AI system is envisaged as being significantly lighter and lower-cost than a human pilot with their associated life support systems, but offering comparable capability in flying the aircraft and in mission execution.

Role
The principal application is to elevate the role of human pilots to mission commanders, leaving AIs to operate under their tactical control as high-skill operators of relatively low-cost robotic craft.

CCAs can perform other missions as well, as "a sensor, as a shooter, as a weapons carrier, as a cost reducer".

Capabilities
Although a CCA will be a fraction of the cost of a manned fighter, they would not be considered expendable or even vulnerable to attrition. A CCA would have sufficient intelligence and onboard defense systems to survive on the battlefield. US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has described them as playing perhaps "100 roles": remotely controlled versions of targeting pods, electronic warfare pods or weapons carriers to provide additional sensors and munitions; to balance affordability and capability.

The price point of a CCA will determine how many types of missions a single airframe can perform, with more expensive designs able to be multirole aircraft, while cheaper designs could be modular to perform different tasks on different days which can afford to be lost in combat. Two increments are planned: increment 1 CCAs will have sensor and targeting systems to focus on carrying additional munitions for manned aircraft; increment 2 CCAs will have greater stealth and autonomy to perform missions including EW, SEAD, and potentially act as decoys. It's possible two distinct solutions could emerge from this stage, one high end and "exquisite" and the other more basic and inexpensive oriented around a single mission. Service officials started out developing the increment 2 CCA as a high-end, stealthy platform, but wargames showing that large numbers of low-end aircraft would be more effective than small numbers of high-end versions in a simulated Pacific conflict influenced them to rethink their approach.

The USAF is seeking CCAs with greater thrust than the current MQ-28 and the XQ-58.

History
The concept of the CCA arose in the early 2000s. CCA programs include the USAF Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. The US Navy and USAF plan to be able to control the CCAs and NGADs of either service. The CCA is being developed in collaborative fashion by multiple commands of the USAF: MG Heather L. Pringle of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL); MG R. Scott Jobe of Air Combat Command (ACC); LTG Dale R. White, program executive officer (PEO) for fighters and advanced aircraft; and BG Joseph Kunkel, DCS, Plans and Programs. All four generals agreed on the need to put CCAs into the Joint Simulation Environment.

Defense policy expert Heather Penney has identified five key elements for the collaborative development of crewed-uncrewed teaming of autonomous loyal wingmen, remote pilots of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and pilots flying separately in manned aircraft (also called manned-unmanned teaming).


 * 1) Create concepts that will maximize the strengths of both CCA and piloted aircraft working as a team.
 * 2) Include operators in CCA development to ensure they understand how they will perform in the battlespace.
 * 3) Warfighters must be able to depend on CCA autonomy.
 * 4) Warfighters must have assured control over CCA in highly dynamic operations.
 * 5) Human workloads must be manageable.

The Autonomous Core System, Skyborg's autonomy package, was shown to be portable across multiple airframes; this has led Skyborg to become a Program of Record with a Program Executive Officer (PEO) for acquisition. Skyborg will continue to serve as a science and technology platform.

Most UAVs are remotely piloted, but an AI program piloting a collaborative combat aircraft would need a mission commander for crewed-uncrewed teaming. —Heather Penney. In 2020, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) AlphaDogfight test program established that AI programs that fly fighter aircraft will overmatch human pilots, to the extent that the AI agents even flew with fine motor control. An autonomy package on the VISTA testbed has demonstrated dogfighting capability. US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall flew in the X-62A VISTA, which was under AI control. The NGAD is anticipated to use loyal wingmen (CCAs). Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall envisions these uncrewed aircraft as performing parts of a larger mission; CCA development can be conducted in parallel with NGAD development, which has to take into account a larger set of requirements. Up to five autonomous CCAs would operate with an NGAD.

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) will test their Skyborg manned-unmanned programs such as Autonomous Air Combat Operations (AACO), and DARPA will test its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) artificial intelligence program. The System for Autonomous Control of Simulation (SACS) software for human interface is being developed by Calspan.

DARPA's Longshot is an air-launched UAV meant to extend the range of a mission and reduce the risk to manned aircraft, which could then remain at standoff range; if Longshot were to use Air Combat Evolution (ACE), missiles launched from that Longshot could more effectively select targets. On March 6, 2023, DARPA chose General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) to carry out the design of the air-launched Longshot drone through Critical Design Review (CDR); a LongShot would itself carry an AMRAAM or Sidewinder missile, which greatly extends the range of these missiles. In this way, a Boeing F-15EX Eagle II or similar 4th-generation fighter can greatly increase their survivability, when armed with a LongShot. GA-ASI is developing a core package (Gambit) for the CCA market.

On 9 December 2022 the Air Force Test Pilot School tested its General Dynamics X-62 VISTA, a modified F-16 Fighting Falcon which can fly autonomously, with 2 different AI packages. By 16 December 2022 the VISTA had flown eight sorties using ACE, and six sorties using AACO, at a rate of two sorties per day. Six F-16s from Eglin AFB will be fitted with autonomy agents, to establish the foundation of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. The CCA lines of effort were:
 * 1) Developing the Collaborative combat aircraft platform itself,
 * 2) developing the autonomy package that will fly a CCA, and
 * 3) figuring out how to organize, train, equip, and supply the CCA program

On 24 January 2024, the US Air Force awarded contracts to five contractor teams led by Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman for the development of collaborative combat aircraft.

On 24 April 2024, the US Air Force announced that they had eliminated Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman from the Increment I competition and that the Anduril Fury and General Atomics Gambit would be moving forward with development. The Air Force expects to make a final decision between the two companies' offerings by 2026. As the CCA program is expected to result in multiple types of aircraft with varying capabilities and costs, all companies are expected to bid again for follow-on Increments.

Funding
A CCA is estimated to cost between one-half and one-quarter as much as $80 million Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II; the desired cost is between $25-30 million per airframe. US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is aiming for an initial fleet of 1,000 CCAs. As elements of a crewed-uncrewed team, two CCAs could be teamed with an NGAD or F-35, say two for each of the 200 NGAD platforms, and two for each of the 300 F-35s, in order to work out concepts to integrate them into the service, but the full inventory could be twice that size. As of 3 July 2024 the Air Force requested reprogramming an additional $150 million for CCA development in 2024. This is a 40% increase over the $392 million budget previously requested; the FY2025 budget request will reflect an additional increment; the money for NGAD was adjusted appropriately.

The 26th Secretary of the US Air Force listed CCAs among his top seven priorities for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 budget request to its Chief of staff: Collaborative combat aircraft are entering the FY2024 presidential budget request; Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) projects are estimated to be $500 million for perhaps "100 roles" in USAF missions in FY2024. The US Air Force plans to spend more than $6 billion on its CCA programs over the next five years (2023 to 2028).

List of CCAs
Several CCAs are or have been under development.

Examples include:
 * GA-ASI Gambit
 * General Atomics XQ-67
 * General Dynamics X-62 VISTA
 * Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie
 * Skyborg Vanguard program entrants.