YFQ-42 aircraft sit on the flightline at a California test location as part of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft flight test campaign. (Courtesy Air Force photo)
General Atomics and Anduril are working with Collins Aerospace and Shield AI, respectively, to integrate mission autonomy software onto their CCA prototypes and conduct semi-autonomous flights.
The Marines will use General Atomics’ YFQ-42A aircraft to evaluate how the service’s future loyal wingman drones will integrate with and fly alongside crewed fighter jets.
Northrop Grumman and Kratos have received a $231.5 million deal to deliver the Marine Corps' first loyal wingman drone under the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary…
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, left, swears in Gen. Ken Wilsbach as the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force at the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, Nov. 3, 2025. Mrs. Cindy Wilsbach joined her husband during the ceremony. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stuart Bright)
“We must guarantee that tomorrow's Airmen inherit an Air Force that can win,” Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach wrote in his first letter to the force.
U.S. Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach, commander of Air Combat Command, speaks to Capt. Nick “Laz” Le Tourneau, F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team commander and pilot, following the team’s certification flight at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, Jan. 24, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Matthew Coleman-Foster)
The biggest challenge to Air Force readiness is the tension between sustaining legacy systems and investing in future capabilities under constrained budgets, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach told lawmakers.
“As we go forward, we’re watching closely in our experimentation to develop a full requirement [and] potentially deliver a capability over the next couple of years," said…
“We’re thinking that they’re not going to be embedded in current fighter squadrons, but rather they’re going to be their own squadrons,” Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said.
A second B-21 Raider, the nation’s sixth-generation stealth bomber, joins flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Sept. 11, 2025. (Courtesy photo)
The U.S. Air Force cannot solve its problems by expanding today’s force or chasing game-changing technologies. It needs to return to the core of military advantage —…
