A less expensive vision for Collaborative Combat Aircraft could include Lockheed Martin F-35s teaming up with multifunctional Speed Racer decoys.
The U.S. Air Force designed the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program to maximize competition—and it is getting just that.
Months after Lockheed Martin lost a competition to build the first round of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) prototypes with a highly stealthy design, CEO James Taiclet is committed to taking a fresh approach in the second round.
- Project Carrera is revived for Increment 2 competition
- The Air Force plans to release increment requirements this year
Instead of a survivable flying wing design, Taiclet described a scaled-back approach to the CCA Increment 2 prototype contract set to begin by year-end.
“We’ve developed a pod that will enable the [Lockheed Martin] F-35 to control, even today, CCAs, if you will,” Taiclet told analysts on a third-quarter earnings call. “We have a flight control system and a communication system in development that will enable that as well. And that could be converted, I think, to the F-22.”
Taiclet’s description hearkens back to a two-year-old Skunk Works initiative, revealing a new tack by Lockheed for the CCA Increment 2 competition.
In September 2022, Skunk Works revealed Project Carrera, a $100 million internal investment in a unique approach to the then-nascent concept. The project called for installing communication and flight control systems for the CCA in a pod on an F-35.
By installing advanced processors in the F-35 pod, Lockheed could minimize the cost of the electronics in each CCA, which would simply receive software-based autonomy instructions. Project Carrera also proposed simplifying the air vehicle as much as possible, devolving it into the company-funded Speed Racer, a system that could be launched in the air and perform as a decoy, surveillance node, communications relay or strike asset on any given mission.
In 2022, Project Carrera stood apart from both industry and Air Force approaches to what became the CCA Increment 1 prototype program.
At least two of the three largest defense contractors—Lockheed and Northrop Grumman—promoted stealthy, flying-wing, uncrewed aircraft systems that prioritized survivability over cost. Boeing’s options included using the MQ-28A Ghost Bat as well as leveraging its experience with the X-45, another stealthy flying-wing design.
But the Air Force chose a different approach. Service officials selected a derivative of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. XQ-67 Gambit and the Anduril Fury. Both aircraft reflected a conventional design philosophy, emphasizing lower cost at the possible expense of survivability.
Meanwhile, Skunk Works’ Project Carrera faded from view. Asked in September 2023 for an update, John Clark, the program’s general manager, invoked the past tense: “It was a great idea that we can no longer talk about” due to Air Force policy (AW&ST Sept. 4-17, 2023, p. 14).
But the service’s choice last April of less survivable systems for CCA Increment 1 clearly irked Clark. A month after losing the contract, he criticized the Air Force’s decision in another interview with Aviation Week (AW&ST June 17-30, p. 32). His program’s analysis showed that all such CCAs would be shot down on every mission. As attritable systems, that result might be acceptable in some cases. But the question was whether the Air Force could afford to lose Increment 1 CCAs on every mission; each would cost $25-30 million.
Taiclet’s remarks on the third-quarter earnings call suggest that Lockheed is giving the Project Carrera concept a second look. The Air Force plans to release draft performance requirements for the Increment 2 prototype competition by year-end, and Lockheed expects to respond. If the service wants a markedly cheaper approach to the CCA concept in Increment 2, Project Carrera’s plan—linking inexpensive, disposable Speed Racers to F-35-mounted control pods—might offer a clue about the company’s bid.
“Increment 2 is going to be really where we’re, I think, most competitive because we can show that we can control these vehicles with today’s technology already at scale,” Taiclet said. “So we’re going to be eager to compete for that.”
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