
Air Force pondering CCA drones that don’t require runways as officials plan next increment
The Air Force is conducting mission-level modeling for Increment 2 of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
The Air Force is conducting mission-level modeling for Increment 2 of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
“It is likely these areas of advanced military technology will be manifest through the increasingly widespread use of autonomy and automation, in all domains, but especially in space, in cyberspace, and in the air,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall wrote in a new report.
AI tests being conducted at Edwards Air Force Base will inform the service’s testing efforts for future programs, such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
Naval Surface Warfare Centers (NSWC) Crane is “seeking solutions that would successfully integrate existing autonomous air vehicle platforms and advanced communication prototypes allowing for secure tactical communications between multiple similarly configured platforms and provision networked data capabilities,” officials wrote.
Leaders from the three nations detailed their latest cooperation agenda in a press briefing following the fourteenth Trilateral Defense Ministers’ Meeting.
“Both industry teammates are on the path to get to first flight in a timeline that allows us to get operational capability by the end of the decade,” Col. Timothy Helfrich said.
Some of the service’s future aircraft programs are in limbo as it looks for more clarity over the next few months.
The Air Force is taking a more holistic approach to electronic warfare across a variety of systems and capabilities.
Raytheon is working with the service and the two vendors competing in the ongoing development-for-production phase of CCA Increment 1 to incorporate the missiles onto the drones.
NAVAIR has launched a new effort to integrate an AI-enabled pilot with the BQM-177A.