https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024...ircraft-deals/
US Air Force readies to award collaborative combat aircraft deals
DENVER, Colo. — The Air Force plans to whittle down the number of companies working to build the first batch of
collaborative combat aircraft to two or three over the next few months, the service’s secretary said Tuesday.
And the Air Force plans to award contracts for the next round of CCAs —
drones loaded with autonomous software that would fly themselves into battle alongside crewed fighters — in fiscal 2025, Frank Kendall said during a roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium here.
This next round of CCA development could also involve participation by the United States’ closest and “most strategic” international partners, he said.
On the first increment of CCAs, the Air Force has contracts with five companies: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril. Kendall said the Air Force would like to cut that to three, but acknowledged budgetary limitations will make choosing just two companies more likely.
The Air Force plans to field several different types of CCAs, with different capabilities and levels of survivability, to carry out a wide range of missions including strikes, surveillance, jamming, and serving as decoys to draw enemy fire…..