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Collaborative Combat Aircraft Prototypes Progress On Autonomy Tests
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc's YFA-42A.
AURORA, Colorado—Both of the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft prototypes are flying with mission autonomy as the service is preparing both for more intensive tests and production decisions on the program.
On Feb. 24, Anduril’s YFQ-44A flew with Shield AI’s mission autonomy software, said Col. Timothy Helfrich, the Air Force’s portfolio acquisition executive in the fighters and advanced aircraft directorate. The announcement comes about two weeks after the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. YFQ-42A flew with mission autonomy from Collins Aerospace.
“So we now have two different mission autonomies flying on two different aircraft,” Helfrich said during a discussion at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here. “Quite an accomplishment going so quickly, but we’ve got a lot ahead of us though.”
Helfrich’s comments come two days after Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach announced the YFQ-44A flew with an inert AIM-120 missile in early weapons integrations testing.
Anduril in a subsequent statement said the aircraft flew with two different mission autonomy suites—Shield AI’s Hivemind and Anduril’s own Lattice for Mission Autonomy. The software switched seamlessly and completed the same test points before landing, according to the company.
Helfrich also highlighted the recently announced demonstration in which a pilot in a Lockheed Martin F-22 controlled a GA-ASI MQ-20 serving as a surrogate CCA. The Air Force is now planning to use an F-22 to fly either the YFQ-42A or YFQ-44A this year.
The tests come as the service is at a decision point for increment one of the aircraft and the autonomy systems. The Air Force by the end of the year will decide if it will take the YFQ-42A or the YFQ-44A into production. The service does have the option to take both, or neither—leaving open the possibility another aircraft could come into the picture. Northrop Grumman, for example, recently announced its Talon Blue aircraft was designated the YFQ-48A.
Helfrich says the Air Force is operating on the same timeline to down-select mission autonomy for the first increment.
“So, lot’s happening from an integration perspective as well as moving the ball forward in record time,” he says.
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