Turkey has joined the small club of countries that have demonstrated autonomous collaborative platform operations between crewed and uncrewed aircraft.
The F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter’s increased combat radius favors a missile-carrying CCA that could be deployed by crewed fighters and bombers.
The U.S. Air Force kicked off testing for the Anduril YFQ-44A prototypes assigned to the Experimental Operations Unit to help learn tactics and procedures for a new class of Collaborative Combat Aircraft now in development.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. said it paused operations with its YFQ-42A prototype following a mishap after takeoff at its airport in California.
Anduril is working on hypersonic strike systems and large air vehicles, pushing its defense technology portfolio beyond subsonic cruise missiles and CCA.
Anduril has started assembling more prototypes of the autonomous YFQ-44 fighter at the newly opened Arsenal-1 weapons production complex near Columbus, Ohio.
Aviation Week has identified $23.1 billion in open opportunities to supply CCAs between 2026 and 2035 that have officially been announced by operators.
The F-47 and B-21 are the crown jewels of next-generation air dominance and strike capability, but they will also be part of a larger family of systems.
European efforts to demonstrate CCA efforts are gaining pace, with Airbus saying it is looking to fly two modified Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie systems before year end.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ new Aviation Plan builds on the progress of Project Eagle to date while sharpening the focus on artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and uncrewed technologies.
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.