The services want their respective robotic wingmen to have common aircraft architecture, communications links, autonomy architecture and ground-control segments, Brig. Gen. Dale White told reporters.
The Air Force is planning to release an "integrated aerial network roadmap" sometime in the fall outlining its strategy, an official told DefenseScoop.
"I spent years struggling to overcome acquisition malpractice, and we're still struggling with that to some degree,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall told reporters.
In fiscal 2024-2028, the service intends to invest about $5.8 billion in R&D for collaborative combat aircraft, plus another $400 million or so for an experimental operations…
The funding would go toward three lines of effort: platform development, autonomy development, and standing up an “experimental operations unit” to explore operating concepts.
This figure was derived from assuming two CCAs each for 200 NGAD platforms and an additional two for each of 300 F-35s, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall…