Air Force pondering CCA drones that don’t require runways as officials plan next increment
The Air Force is conducting mission-level modeling for the next increment of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, and options being considered include drones that don’t require runways to be launched, according to a senior officer.
The CCA initiative envisions using highly autonomous uncrewed systems to serve as robotic wingmen for manned fighter jets and perform other missions. The service plans to develop and field new iterations of these types of platforms over time.
Last year, General Atomics and Anduril each received contracts for the development-for-production phase of Increment 1. Both companies completed their Critical Design Reviews in recent months.
The first increment of CCA is expected to largely focus on air-to-air capabilities.
However, officials are already looking at what might be included in the next set.
“Increment 2 planning is ongoing right now. And so the stage we’re at in that planning is mission-level modeling and understanding like just how a CCA that looks different, maybe fully different, or maybe just an iteration of what we currently have — how those would play. And so we haven’t … narrowed down this environment from, you know, more exquisite on one side to less exquisite and a lot cheaper on the other side. We’re still … in the [phase of determining], you know, what do we think it really needs to be? And there’s a lot of operational analysis that goes into it, and industry has been providing a lot of operational analysis in this space as well, because there are benefits to having something that’s less exquisite, and there are also benefits to having something that’s more exquisite and has more capability,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, director of force design, integration and wargaming at the Air Force Futures organization, said during a pre-recorded Defense One event that aired Tuesday.
A top Air Force acquisition official previously told DefenseScoop that observers shouldn’t expect “straight-line” capability advancements from one increment of CCA to the next.
Other officials have noted that the service must balance capability and cost.
“We thought for CCA Increment 1, we kind of went, you know, Goldilocks right in the middle, right in the middle of what it could be. And we think that’s about right to start. Where we go in the future with, you know, is it going to be something that’s much cheaper that, you know, may not even be ground-launched or doesn’t need a runway or can be launched via rocket, or something like that — that’s something that, you know, we’re looking at — all the way to others, which is something that’s, you know, more exquisite, carries more weapons, you know, has more missions. We’re looking at that entire space right now,” Kunkel said.
Having drones that don’t require runways would give the Air Force more options and operational flexibility.
“We’re excited about CCA Increment 1. All of our analysis says it’s going to be great. Hold on for CCA Increment 2 because it’s going to be another game-changer for us,” Kunkel said.
