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.
“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.
Airmen from the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron munitions flight load an AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile onto an F-15E Strike Eagle during an integrated combat turn training event at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, March 3, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Greg Erwin)
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.
