The U.S. Air Force confirmed on Jan. 24 that it has contracted with five teams–led by Anduril, Boeing [BA], General Atomics, Lockheed Martin [LMT], and Northrop Grumman [NOC]–to develop Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has posited a buy of 1,000 CCAs to deploy from and aid Lockheed Martin F-35As and Next Generation Air Dominance manned fighters, but some top service officials are suggesting the need for a significantly higher target number of CCAs. The service wants autonomous CCAs for air-to-air missions initially and then for other possible areas, such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and jamming.
Acting Air Force Comptroller Kristyn Jones told a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) forum on Jan. 23 that the service “has five [CCA] contracts awarded.”
“In many cases, those are teams of traditional [defense contractors] and non-traditional,” she said. “Where a lot of the non-traditionals are coming in is in the autonomy and the pairing with the crewed platforms.”
Appearing with Jones was Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, Jr., Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, who said that Kendall “asked us, ‘Please don’t go to industry and give them a requirement.'”
“The last thing in the world we want to do is tell them what to build,” Moore said. “We want to go to them with questions, and we want to find out what they can do. What is the art of the possible, and what is it that they could provide? Let’s allow the envelope to expand by not constraining them with a requirement, and I think what we’re starting to see now is that there are a lot of thoughts out there, some of them not necessarily from the defense primes that will really be beyond what we would have conceived had we decided to write a requirement…I think the way that this is innovative is something that will transition to other programs. I don’t think that this is one and done because I think that we’re gonna find it to be wildly successful.”
Last month, a Breaking Defense article, based on a single source, disclosed the companies, but the Air Force did not confirm that it had chosen them.
One surprise was the absence in the Air Force’s announcement of Kratos Defense [KTOS], the builder of the XQ-58A Valkyrie drone, which has served as an inspiration for CCA.
Yet, Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter has suggested that several dozen companies may be in the running for a series of CCA awards.
“Kratos is the only company with low-cost high performance expendable and attritable jet drones, both in production and flying today, including Air Wolf, Mako, Valkyrie, Thanatos, Athena and others,” Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco told analysts in an earnings call on Nov. 2. “Late next year [2024], we hope to receive our largest-to-date Kratos tactical drone related contract award.”
CCA looks to be a focus for Air Force innovation and the adaptation of various companies’ drones, for example General Atomics’ Gambit series, for future missions.