Air Force wants almost $1B to buy first CCA drones in 2027

The Air Force is asking for nearly $1 billion in fiscal 2027 to initiate procurement of the first Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, according to newly published budget documents. 

The Trump administration released a record-breaking $1.5 trillion defense budget proposal Friday, comprising $1.15 trillion of discretionary funds for FY27 and $350 billion from a future reconciliation bill. The request would allocate $30.6 billion in total for Air Force aircraft procurement, which for the first time includes the CCA program.

While available documents did not detail how many CCA drones the Air Force wants to buy, the request signals the high-profile program is ready to transition into formal procurement and production. The service is currently slated to make a final production decision for Increment 1 of the CCA program this summer.

If approved by lawmakers, all of the $996.5 million would come from the Air Force’s base budget request for FY27.

The service formally began development work on the CCA program in 2023 as part of its broader Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems. The drones are expected to fly alongside the Air Force’s manned fifth- and sixth-generation aircraft and conduct a range of missions, including intelligence gathering and offensive strike.

The procurement request is for the first batch of CCA drones known as Increment 1. General Atomics and Anduril received contracts from the Air Force in 2024 to continue development and conduct flight tests of their CCA prototypes — the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. Other vendors are allowed to compete for the final production contract, albeit using their internal funding. 

Since the program’s inception, Air Force leadership have touted the CCA concept as a critical part of their modernization plans. Not only are the semi-autonomous fighter jets designed to augment the service’s fleet, they will do so at a significantly lower cost than manned aircraft, according to officials.

Former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendal initially estimated the service could field over 100 Increment 1 CCA drones by 2029 at a price tag of around $30 million per platform — roughly one-third the cost of an F-35 Lightning II fighter jet.

However, officials have recently indicated that the Air Force is rethinking those plans.

During the annual McAleese Defense Programs Conference in March, Gen. Dale White, the service’s director of critical major weapon systems, said the program’s production goals will be finalized before the end of fall 2026. That plan could include a decision to increase production beyond Kendall’s initial targets, he said.

“We have a production number that we’re marching towards. How do you scale that, or do you start looking closer at Increment 2?” White said, referring to the follow-on platform for the program. “How much do you want to ramp up and scale Increment 1 above the baseline, if we do at all?”

Meanwhile, the unit price for CCA drones has decreased from Kendall’s early cost estimates, according to Col. Timothy Helfrich, portfolio acquisition executive for fighters and advanced aircraft.

“Not only have we met it, we are doing much better than that,” Helfrich said in March during a webinar hosted by Defense One. 

If past cost estimates remain accurate, the Air Force would be poised to buy around 30 Increment 1 CCA drones in FY27 pending congressional approval, according to Travis Sharp, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

“I’d round that down to 30 because weapons systems typically cost more per unit initially until the price declines as systems move down the learning curve,” Sharp told DefenseScoop. “Since the CCA is still in a relatively early stage, I wouldn’t expect it to have reached its lowest price point yet.”

He added that a $1 billion procurement request is appropriate for the first lot, as buying around 30 CCA drones in FY27 would align with the Air Force’s plans to scale production past 100 aircraft.

Beyond procurement, the Air Force is also requesting almost $1.3 billion in discretionary funds for continued research and development of the CCA program in FY27, according to budget documents. The service received a total of $827 million in R&D money for the program in fiscal 2026.

The Air Force is developing the drones in spiral batches, with each iteration featuring the latest upgrades and capabilities, and R&D funding received in FY27 would likely go to future increments. The service currently has nine unnamed vendors on contract to develop early prototypes for CCA Increment 2, according to a report from Breaking Defense.

Officials previously claimed that future CCA batches would be more exquisite — and therefore more expensive — than Increment 1. But as of last year, the Air Force has publicly leaned toward wanting even cheaper platforms that are more attritable.