Nearly $20 million would go to air vehicle development and about $15 million to mission systems development and integration. The rest of the funding would be allotted for systems engineering, control segment development and integration, and development support.

Officials noted that the spending plan for 2026 increased since the last budget submission.

The project, known as MUX TACAIR increment 1, will leverage previous work that the Corps has done for its Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer-Portfolio (PAACK-P), which received funding in previous years under the Pentagon’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve initiative.

“We are experimenting with unmanned aircraft like the XQ-58 Valkyrie working alongside crewed platforms such as the F-35. Recent tests validated their ability to conduct electronic warfare, execute autonomous tasks, and support Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) missions — all of which improve the survivability and effectiveness of manned Marine aviation in high-threat environments,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told members of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee in written testimony last month, adding that investments in collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs) and other technologies will reduce risk to personnel and increase the speed and accuracy of decision making.

The Marines want highly autonomous next-generation drones to serve as robotic wingmen that could take on high-tech foes such as China in places like the Indo-Pacific.

MUX TACAIR, or Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) unmanned aerial system expeditionary tactical aircraft, would be expected to support “mass buildup of a Joint Force against a peer/near-peer adversary,” according to budget documents, which noted that they could play a significant role in electronic warfare and reconnaissance missions.

“Project efforts focus on operations from austere Expeditionary Advanced Basing Operations (EABO) airfields in support of Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR) and/or Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) operations serving as the Stand in Force (SiF) for a Joint Force, providing lethal and flexible support to support from the land and sea. This project increases MAGTF lethality, capacity and interoperability in the reconnaissance and electronic warfare mission areas, complementing existing and future TACAIR capabilities and enhancing combat reach into the INDOPACOM Area of Responsibility (AoR), or wherever enhanced, stand-off lethality is needed by the Joint Force,” officials wrote in budget justification documents to support the fiscal 2026 funding request for research, development, test and evaluation.

The Marines plan to award up to three other transaction authority agreements to contractors before the start of the next fiscal year to support the program.

Prototyping and experimentation efforts slated for 2026 include expeditionary air vehicle components and subsystems focused on launch and recovery, conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) capability, electronic warfare subsystem and payload enhancements, interoperability via communications and datalinks, mission systems computing, command and control (C2) integration architecture interoperability, and open architecture applications, according to officials.

Demonstration of prototyping activities, including mission system integration and minimum viable product (MVP) flight tests teamed with crewed aircraft, “will maximize collaborative evaluation environments, which enable developmental and operational evaluation of prototypes and tactics development” by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Four (UX-24) and Marine Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron One (VMX-1)) during fleet exercises as well as weapons and tactics instructor courses hosted by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron One (MAWTS-1), according to budget documents.

Officials noted that the Corps plans to use a “spiral approach” to capability insertion for the program.

“MUX TACAIR Increment I will rapidly accelerate the time between development and fielding, ensuring rapid and relevant capability delivery of a Minimum Viable Product … to the warfighter,” per the budget documents. “Each spiral will have an associated MVP that is operationally relevant and balances schedule and technical complexity. The requirements within each MVP spiral will detail a minimum set of threshold capabilities required for training and tactics development with a unit of employment (e.g., fleet squadron).”

Development spirals will include enhancements in areas such as command and control, electronic warfare, mission computers and datalinks, according to officials.

Efforts in fiscal 2026 are expected to support an acquisition decision memorandum for Middle Tier of Acquisition rapid prototyping entry.

The Marines aren’t the only U.S. military service pursuing CCAs. The Air Force plans to spend $807 million in fiscal 2026 on its program.

Budget documents noted that the Marines will be “maximizing alignment” with Air Force and Department of the Navy CCA efforts “to reduce duplication and enhance interoperability through the use of compatible C2 implementations, mission systems, and common control architecture.”

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The Trump administration announced in April that it awarded a contract to Boeing to build the F-47, a sixth-generation platform that’s part of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance initiative. Officials haven’t publicly disclosed how much Boeing received for the award due to classification of the project.

The DOD hasn’t publicly released full documentation for its 2026 budget request yet. But at a House Appropriations Committee hearing Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Pentagon leaders discussed some of the department’s plans for key programs.

The budget allocates $3.5 billion for the F-47, Hegseth told lawmakers.

The system is being built “to dominate the most capable adversaries and operate in the most perilous threat environments imaginable,” he said in written testimony to the committee.

The platform will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable and supportable, have higher availability, and take less manpower and infrastructure to deploy than the U.S. military’s fifth-gen fighters, he told lawmakers.

“The F-47 will significantly strengthen America’s air power and improves our global position. It will keep our skies secure — even as it ensures we are able to reach out adversaries wherever they may hide,” he said.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in written testimony to the committee that the jet is the world’s first sixth-generation fighter and will offer superior “adaptability” compared to platforms that are currently in the fleet. He asserted that it would ensure “continued U.S. air dominance for decades.”

A graphic shared last month by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin on the social media platform X, indicated that the F-47 will have a combat radius greater than 1,000 nautical miles and a top speed higher than Mach 2. In comparison, the fifth-gen F-22 and F-35A stealth fighters have combat radiuses of 590 nautical miles and 670 nautical miles, respectively. The F-22 has a top speed greater than Mach 2 and the F-35A has a top speed of Mach 1.6, according to the chart.

The service plans to buy upwards of 185 F-47s over the course of the program.

Hegseth also told lawmakers Tuesday that the 2026 budget will “fully fund” the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, which aims to field high-speed, next-generation drones that can fly with manned fighter jets like the F-47 and perform air superiority missions.

“We believe in the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the loyal wingman concept, this idea that you project power more robustly through autonomous [and] semi-autonomous systems … that amplify our lethal effect,” he said.

Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell, who is performing the duties of Pentagon comptroller and chief financial officer, said the 2026 budget request includes $804 million for CCA.

The Air Force has given fighter designations to the CCA prototypes that General Atomics and Anduril are developing, referred to as YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. Both companies have started ground testing of their systems, and senior defense officials on Tuesday said first flights are expected to take place before the end of this fiscal year.

According to the graphic shared by Allvin last month, CCAs will be stealthy and have a combat radius greater than 700 nautical miles. Their top speed is classified.

The Air Force plans to buy more than 1,000 of the next-gen drones in increments.

Last week, the service announced that an Experimental Operations Unit for CCA was elevated to a “fully operational squadron equivalent” during a June 5 ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

According to a press release, the unit will integrate into the Virtual Warfare Center and the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center Nellis to “conduct realistic simulations and refine non-materiel considerations of CCA employment concepts in a virtual environment.” It also plans to conduct “live-fly experiments to verify simulation results and optimize tactics, techniques and procedures.”

“Our experimental operations will ensure that CCA are immediately viable as a credible combat capability that increases Joint Force survivability and lethality,” Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, EOU commander, said in a statement.

The Air Force aims for the F-47 and CCA drones to be operational before 2030.

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“Right now, [AI adoption] is a mixed bag. I think it’s not for lack of effort, but I think there are some institutional pieces there,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said Monday at the AI+ Expo hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project. “We are understanding the value of it, but assimilating it into our institution is one I think we still have some work to do on.”

There are a number of ongoing efforts to harness AI and autonomous capabilities across the department, including development of loyal wingman drones known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), integrating AI into its pilot test schools and experimentation with large language models for administrative support. Allvin also highlighted budding partnerships the service has with academic institutions — such as the DAF-MIT AI Accelerator and Stanford AI Studio — as beneficial to the service’s overall adoption of the tech.

But much like the rest of the Pentagon, the Air Force is encumbered by legacy bureaucratic processes that are unable to keep up with rapid advancements in AI capabilities. As a result, officials are working to find existing technologies, understand the best ways to leverage them and prove their value for the Air Force in order to move forward, Allvin said.

“Sometimes it’s hard for the institution to adapt, so we need to grab onto something and, even though there might be something better coming along in the future, we need to have the institution go, ‘Wow, that’s pretty important, that helps me make decisions better, that helps me do predictive maintenance better,’” he said. “And then, that helps us to really assimilate and be able to jump on the train.”

Allvin noted that one key initiative doing a lot of that legwork is the service’s CCA program, which has been divided into three separate parts. General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing their respective platforms, at least one of which will be chosen as the first CCA drone under Increment 1. At the same time, the Air Force’s Project Venom is testing much of the autonomous flight technology for air-to-air combat that will likely be used by the next-generation drones. Meanwhile, the service’s experimental operations unit at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada is exploring operational concepts for the CCA platforms.

“We have to keep our imaginations wide open to understand this is a game-changing technology that can really shift [and] go to the next level when it comes to air dominance, but we can only do that if we don’t sort of get trapped by the vestiges of the past,” Allvin said.

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The tests represent a critical milestone for the CCA program, which is part of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems. The drones are expected to fly alongside the service’s manned platforms — including the sixth-gen F-47 fighter jet — to conduct a range of missions and augment the organization’s aircraft fleet. The ground tests bring the two vendors one step closer to conducting first flights of their drones, scheduled for sometime this summer.

“This phase bridges the gap between design and flight, reducing integration risks, boosting confidence, and laying the groundwork for a successful first flight and eventual fielding to the warfighter,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said in a statement.

The upcoming ground test phase will include “rigorous evaluations” of both vendors’ prototypes, according to an Air Force statement. The tests will focus on the platforms’ propulsion, avionics, autonomy integration and ground control segments to “validate performance, inform future design decisions, and prepare the systems for flight testing later this year.”

After receiving contracts in 2024 for Increment 1 of the CCA program, General Atomics and Anduril completed critical design reviews of their prototypes last fall. The Air Force in March designated the platforms as the first-ever unmanned fighter aircraft, with General Atomics’ prototype dubbed the YFQ-42A and Anduril’s Fury platform now referred to as the YFQ-44A.

“The CCA program represents a groundbreaking new era in combat aviation, and we remain on schedule to test and fly YFQ-42 in the coming months,” General Atomics President David Alexander said in a statement. “Our work on YFQ-42 will further expand the field of unmanned aviation, and we remain excited for the future.”

Air Force leadership have touted the service’s rapid and flexible approach taken with the CCA program, as it plans to field systems in increments. A competitive production decision for Increment 1 is expected in fiscal 2026, with the first batch of drones planned for fielding sometime before 2030.

“Together, Anduril and the United States Air Force are pioneering a new generation of semi-autonomous fighter aircraft that will fundamentally transform air combat,” Jason Levin, Anduril’s senior vice president of air dominance and strike, said in a statement. “By delivering YFQ-44A at unprecedented speed, we are ensuring that warfighters have ample opportunity to experiment and build the trust required to support operational fielding of CCAs before the end of the decade.”

While General Atomics and Anduril are developing Increment 1 CCA platforms, the Air Force is separately working with five unnamed vendors that are developing the autonomy software for the first batch of drones.

Meanwhile, the service intends to begin development of the next batch of CCA drones, known as Increment 2, during fiscal 2026 to expand mission applications and integrate emerging technologies.

In recent months, Joseph Kunkel, director of force design, integration and wargaming at the Air Force Futures organization, has suggested that future CCA increments could feature a range of options in terms of cost and capabilities — including some attributes that aren’t considered “exquisite” in order to keep price tags low.

Along with initiating ground tests, the Air Force announced Thursday that the CCA drones will be based at California’s Beale Air Force Base, which has been designated as the CCA Aircraft Readiness Unit (ARU).

“The mission of the ARU is to provide combat aircraft ready to deploy worldwide at a moment’s notice. CCA are semi-autonomous in nature so the ARU will not have to fly a significant number of daily sorties to maintain readiness,” the service said in a statement. “The aircraft will be maintained in a fly-ready status and flown minimally so the number of airmen required to support the fleet will be substantially lower than other weapons systems.”

Updated on May 1, 2025, at 3:40 PM: This story has been updated to

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The service is expected to award the F/A-XX program to either Boeing or Northrop Grumman in the not-too-distant future.

The Navy plans to begin fielding the system in the 2030s, and the platform is intended to eventually replace the F/A-18EF Super Hornet in the fleet.

Rear Adm. Michael “Buzz” Donnelly, director of the air warfare division, N98, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, told DefenseScoop Monday that the sixth-gen F/A-XX will have several attributes that make it more advanced than the fourth-gen Super Hornet or the fifth-gen F-35C Lightning II.

Increased range will be a “core attribute” of the future fighter, he said.

“That increased range is an essential attribute that we’re looking to field. So probably over 125 percent of the range that we’re seeing today to give us better flexibility, operational reach. It will, of course, have refuel ability. And all of our air wings, our tactics and what we are designing in the future considers organic refueling capability. So the F/A-XX will be able to leverage that,” he said.

For context, the Super Hornet has a combat range of 1,275 nautical miles “clean” while carrying two AIM-9 missiles, according to a fact sheet from Naval Air Systems Command.

“It will definitely have longer inherent range. And then with refueling, you could say that’s indefinite as long as the refueling is available,” Donnelly said.

Stealthiness and AI integration will also be key characteristics, he suggested.

“Its attributes of survivability and signature, which give it the ability to penetrate threat airspace that will pace the threat that we see into the future beyond 2040. So that’s what we see as essential as the threat builds out its capabilities and increases kinetic capabilities with its own fighters and weapons,” he said.

“It will also, with the integration of AI and other technical advantages, allow us to have increased battle space management. And it will be our next platform that, instead of being man in the loop, will truly be man on the loop and allow us to have fully integrated architecture with our unmanned systems that we’re going to be fielding with concepts like the CCAs — whether it’s those collaborative combat aircraft, the small increased mass, or also teaming with larger unmanned vehicles that we may foresee into the future,” he added.

Today’s fighter and refueling capabilities give carrier air wings an “area of effect” of over 8 million square miles, Donnelly said during a panel at the Sea-Air-Space conference. With the addition of the MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker and the F/A-XX, the area of effect is expected to increase to 11 million square miles.

“That area of effect is important because that’s also the area of uncertainty for the air wing that enhances the survivability of the strike crew, but it’s also the tactical reality combined with the attributes of those platforms that allow us to penetrate into complex, ubiquitous ISR that the threat will continue to field and be selective in our targeting, so that we can be efficient and persist longer,” he said.

Adm. James Kilby, acting chief of naval operations, declined to provide a timeline for when the F/A-XX award might be announced.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the contract decision,” Kilby told reporters on the sidelines of the Sea-Air-Space conference. “It’s a decision at the secretarial level and above, and they’re working that now.”

He added: “But I will tell you, we need F/A-XX in the United States Navy, just like the Air Force does [need a next-gen fighter]. I mean, we’re talking about a fight in the Pacific. We fight together as a joint force, so having that capability is very important for us.”

Brandi Vincent contributed reporting.

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Troy Meink — who worked at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) prior to his nomination — also told lawmakers that the department must move faster on innovating new technologies, while also improving acquisition processes for onboarding new capabilities.

“One of the first things I plan to do is take a holistic look at all the modernization and all the readiness bills that we have coming. And then I will put together and advocate for what resources I think are necessary to execute all of those missions,” Meink said Thursday during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Both during his testimony and in responses to advance policy questions prior to the hearing, Meink emphasized that the Air Force is at an inflection point as it works to upgrade key systems and capabilities across all of its core mission areas.

The service is responsible for modernizing two legs of the nuclear triad with its new B-21 Raider stealth bomber and its replacement for the aging Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system known as the LGM-35A Sentinel. Other high-cost efforts include the Air Force’s next-generation fighter platforms — such as the F-47 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones — new command-and-control capabilities and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems.

Managing those efforts with ongoing readiness and maintenance requirements would be his top priority — and a significant challenge — if confirmed, Meink told lawmakers.

“We also need to balance today’s requirements with the need to modernize and maintain future readiness, deterrence and lethality,” Meink wrote in his written responses to lawmakers’ questions. “Manage short-term risk to readiness to modernize and prepare our forces for mid-to-long term and enduring strategic missions as well as acute and persistent threats.”

Meink also pledged to improve the Air Force’s ability to innovate on new technologies for warfighters, adding that his previous experience at the NRO and in other leadership positions at the Pentagon would help him do so.

“I spent the last decade increasing competition and expanding the industry base, which has significantly accelerated delivery capability and at a lower cost. I intend to bring that same drive for innovation to the department,” he said.

Prior to being tapped by Trump in January to serve as the next secretary of the Air Force, Meink spent four years as principal deputy director of the NRO — the spy agency responsible for intelligence space systems. He was also previously the organization’s director of geospatial intelligence systems and held numerous other positions focused on the space domain.

Meink said growing the Space Force would be among his top priorities if he’s confirmed.

“Space is critical. This is actually one of the areas that we’re most challenged, I believe,” Meink said in response to questions from Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb. “From the rapidly evolving threat from China and others — both the direct threat to our systems, as well as the threat those systems pose to operations across the department in general.”

However, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., probed Meink on rumors that the Space Development Agency (SDA) is planning to cancel contracts for Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 of the transport layer in the Proliferated Space Warfighter Architecture (PWSA) and instead award a sole-source contract to SpaceX for its Starshield capability. Cramer added that, if true, such plans would mean at least eight mid-sized space vendors would not be allowed to bid on the contracts.

Meink’s alleged ties to Elon Musk’s SpaceX have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, but the nominee claimed that he was unaware of any considerations to replacing current contracts with Starshield but would investigate them if he’s confirmed.

Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems are on contract to build some of the satellites under the Tranche 2 transport layer, while a separate contract previously awarded to York and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems is being re-competed following a protest bid. The agency is currently gearing up to formally begin bidding for Tranche 3 of the transport layer this year.

“One of the things that I’ve pushed for — particularly over the last 10 years — is to expand competition and expand the industry base,” Meink said. “That ends up almost always with the best result, both from capability and cost to the government.”

In a statement to DefenseScoop, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson said the department and the Space Force are working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to review all acquisition programs under the fiscal 2026 budget process, and that no decision has been made regarding Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 of the transport layer.

“The DAF and [Space Force] are committed to the efficient use of taxpayer dollars and maximizing the delivery of capability to the joint warfighter,” the spokesperson said. “We look forward to sharing the status of our acquisition programs with our stakeholders in Congress and elsewhere when the FY26 budget is delivered in the coming months.”

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Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin for the contract of the platform — which will be designated as the F-47, President Donald Trump announced during a press conference held in the Oval Office. Northrop Grumman was also in the running to develop the NGAD platform until 2023, when the company publicly announced it was exiting the competition.

The Air Force did not share how much Boeing received for the award due to classification of the program. The service is now on a path to field the NGAD platform sometime in the 2030s.

“The F-47 will be the most advanced, most capable, most lethal aircraft ever built,” Trump said. “An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years, and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation.”

The NGAD contract is a critical win for Boeing and revitalizes its stealth aircraft business. The company has bet billions of dollars in standing up advanced manufacturing facilities at its fighter production hub in St. Louis, Missouri, where the legacy F/A-18 Super Hornet line is expected to end in 2027.

The award also gives Boeing a much-needed boost after its other defense programs — such as the KC-46 Pegasus aerial refueler and new Air Force One jets — have racked up billions in financial losses.

“We recognize the importance of designing, building and delivering a 6th-generation fighter capability for the United States Air Force. In preparation for this mission, we made the most significant investment in the history of our defense business, and we are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission,” Steve Parker, interim president and CEO at Boeing Defense, Space and Security, said in a statement.

The sixth-generation fighter jet is intended to replace the F-22 Raptor and is envisioned as a long-range crewed aircraft equipped with advanced sensors and weapons payloads designed to operate in highly contested environments in the Indo-Pacific.

Lockheed Martin’s loss marks an end to the defense giant’s relative monopoly in the stealth fighter manufacturing business. According to a report from Breaking Defense, the company is no longer vying for the Navy’s sixth-generation fighter jet program known as the F/A-XX because its proposal did not meet the service’s criteria.

The F-47 platform is the centerpiece to the Air Force’s NGAD family of systems concept, which also includes the service’s future loyal wingman drones known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and other advanced command-and-control technologies. The aircraft will be powered by an engine being developed under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program — another ongoing competition between GE Aerospace and RTX subsidiary Pratt and Whitney. 

Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Allvin said Friday in a statement that over the last five years, the service has been flying X-planes for the F-47 aircraft to test future concepts and proving out its technology. He noted that the experimental work will allow the NGAD aircraft to fly sometime during Trump’s administration.

“With the F-47, we are not just building another fighter — we are shaping the future of warfare and putting our enemies on notice,” Allvin said. “This platform will be the most advanced, lethal, and adaptable fighter ever developed — designed to outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary that dares to challenge our brave Airmen.”

The announcement comes after the Air Force decided to pause the selection process for the NGAD platform last summer to reevaluate the service’s design concept against predicted threat environments, as well as attempt to lower the platform’s cost. The service initially planned to award the NGAD contract before the end of last year, but ultimately decided in December to push the decision to the Trump administration.

During the pause, former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the service was “taking a hard look” at the platform’s design to ensure the stealth fighter jet would be able to address new and emerging threats. China’s arsenal of advanced weapons and NGAD’s survivability on large airfields were some of the elements considered during the evaluation, he said.

In a statement, Allvin said “the F-47 has unprecedented maturity. While the F-22 is currently the finest air superiority fighter in the world, and its modernization will make it even better, the F-47 is a generational leap forward. The maturity of the aircraft at this phase in the program confirms its readiness to dominate the future fight.”

Budget constraints also influenced the service’s decision to pause NGAD’s selection process. Original estimates for the sixth-gen aircraft were predicted to be around $300 million per unit, but Kendall said last year his ideal price point would be similar to the F-35 Lightning II — about $100 million, depending on the variant.

Allvin said in a statement that the F-47 will have a lower price tag than an F-22 — which has a unit cost of around $143 million. The Air Force requested $2.7 billion for the platform in its budget request for fiscal 2025, indicating that it planned to spend $19.6 billion on the aircraft over the next five years. 

“Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats — and we will have more of the F-47s in our inventory,” Allvin said. “The F-47 will have significantly longer range, more advanced stealth, be more sustainable, supportable, and have higher availability than our 5th generation fighters.”

Updated March 21, 2025, at 2:35 PM: This story has been updated to include a statement from Steve Parker, interim president and CEO at Boeing Defense, Space and Security.

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Increment 1 CCA drones under development by General Atomics and Anduril will be referred to as YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. While the “Y” refers to the platforms’ status as prototype vehicles and will be dropped once they move into production, the “FQ” designates the CCA drones as unmanned autonomous fighter aircraft — the first platform to be assigned such a designation, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said.

“For the first time in our history, we have a fighter designation in the YFQ-42 Alpha and the YFQ-44 Alpha,” Allvin said Monday during a keynote speech at the annual AFA Warfare Symposium. “Maybe [it’s] just symbolic, but it’s telling the world that we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare.”

The CCA drones are part of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems and are expected to be able to conduct multiple types of missions, from offensive strike to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The Air Force wants to field the CCA systems in increments, and is planning to field Increment 1 before the end of the decade.

General Atomics and Anduril each received contracts in 2024 for Increment 1 of the program — an effort intended to develop uncrewed platforms able to fly alongside the Air Force’s fifth- and sixth-generation manned aircraft to augment the service’s capabilities. After completing critical design review in November, both vendors are in the process of building their respective prototypes and preparing for first flight tests this year.

“We have two prototypes of Collaborative Combat Aircraft that were on paper less than a couple years ago,” Allvin said. “They’re going to be ready to fly this summer.”

In a statement, Anduril Senior Vice President of Engineering Jason Levin echoed Allvin’s position that the CCA designations underscored a new era of unmanned military aircraft. The company is currently in the fabrication and testing process for its Increment 1 prototype — dubbed Fury — ahead of first flight this year.

“The designation is evidence of the program’s progress, and we continue to work tirelessly to deliver a capability that will expand the United States’ ability to project combat airpower,” Levin said in a statement.

At the same time, General Atomics is proposing a variant from its Gambit family of drones for CCA Increment 1. Much of the company’s previous work with the Air Force Research Laboratory to build an X-plane known as the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station has been carried over to develop its CCA prototype. 

“These aircraft represent an unrivaled history of capable, dependable uncrewed platforms that meet the needs of America’s warfighters and point the way to a significant new era for airpower,” GA-ASI President David Alexander said in a statement. 

While the Air Force remains confident in the CCA program’s progress, the fate of the service’s manned sixth-generation fighter remains in limbo. After pausing the selection process for the NGAD platform last year, then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced in December that the service would defer any final decisions on the program’s fate to the Trump administration.

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If confirmed, Phelan — a businessman and co-founder of MSD Capital — would take the helm of the department as it pursues new drones and a “hybrid fleet” of manned and unmanned systems, among other modernization efforts. Service leadership is also in flux in the wake of Trump’s firing of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti last week.

“I understand that the F/A-XX next-generation [fighter] aircraft, offering significant advancements in operational reach and capacity within contested environments, is intended to enable Carrier Strike Groups to outpace adversaries while maintaining naval air dominance. I also understand the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force are collaborating closely to ensure interoperability through shared enabling technologies like autonomy, mission systems, and communication architectures. This collaborative approach, encompassing both manned and unmanned platforms, including Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), will maximize operational effectiveness and flexibility across the services,” Phelan wrote in response to advance policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee ahead of his confirmation hearing Thursday.

“In my view, aligning technology development and operational requirements will ensure the Services are poised to fully leverage next-generation unmanned systems, ultimately enhancing capabilities and long-range mission effectiveness,” he added.

The Pentagon envisions highly autonomous CCA drones serving as robotic wingmen to manned fighter jets or performing separate missions. The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are each pursuing their own variants, which they hope to field in the coming years. The Air Force is widely seen as being ahead of the other branches in their pursuit of these types of platforms.

The Navy also aims to develop and field a next-generation manned fighter jet, currently referred to as the F/A-XX, that it hopes to field in the 2030s. An Air Force decision about the future of its manned, next-gen stealth fighter program— which was part of the Next Generation Air Dominance initiative — was postponed late last year amid the transition in presidential administrations.

Phelan told lawmakers that he would advocate for “smart investments” in the Navy’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, highlighting the need to foster industry competition, including non-traditional contractors, with the aim of driving down costs, accelerating timelines and maintaining the Navy’s technological superiority.

He also noted that he would prioritize “timely” modifications to Nimitz-class aircraft carriers for unmanned system integration.

Defense officials have expressed a desire to ensure interoperability between the services’ future crewed and uncrewed systems. Phelan — who has never served in the military — endorsed that idea in his comments to senators.

“I understand the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are aligned on key enabling technologies, including mission systems, autonomy architecture, and communication and command architecture. This alignment ensures that both manned and unmanned platforms can operate effectively together, enhancing interoperability across branches. If confirmed, I will commit to continue collaboration with the other services and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to ensure that systems are compatible and ready to integrate seamlessly in joint operations, supporting interservice coordination and maximizing mission effectiveness,” he wrote.

The Navy isn’t just looking to field next-gen unmanned aerial systems. It’s also pursuing new unmanned surface vessels and unmanned underwater vehicles, as it works to build a so-called hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed platforms.

Accelerating the fielding of those types of systems to deter China in the Indo-Pacific was part of Franchetti’s Project 33 and CNO Navigation Plan, which she unveiled a few months before she got fired.

The Navy has also been playing a key role in the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which was launched during the Biden administration with the goal of fielding thousands of “all-domain attritable autonomous systems” by August 2025.

The sea service has also set up new organizations, such as Task Force 59 and robo-ship squadrons, to work through concepts of operation and other issues that need to be addressed.

Phelan didn’t refer to Replicator by name in his written comments to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, but he suggested that he’s in favor of those types of efforts.

“The unique capabilities that unmanned systems bring to the naval and joint force are a tremendous force multiplier, and I believe the Department of the Navy should appropriately and adequately resource the right solutions and doctrine, organization, training, personnel and facilities that support these capabilities, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. There can be no dispute that unmanned systems are now very much part of the landscape of modern war,” he wrote.

“Also revealed is the rapid pace of innovation for these systems, as well as the rapid operational adoption of the evolving systems in battle,” he added. “If confirmed, I will thoroughly examine this issue to ensure the Department of the Navy investments are properly prioritized in this area by ensuring appropriate system selection through early, data-driven analysis. This will include championing joint investment in enabling technologies like autonomy, mission systems, and communications to guarantee interoperability across services and with coalition partners, for example through ongoing all-domain attritable autonomous systems efforts.”

Phelan is the second of Trump’s service secretary nominees during his second term to have a confirmation hearing. Earlier this week, Daniel Driscoll was confirmed as secretary of the Army. A confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for Air Force secretary, Troy Meink, has not been scheduled.

Trump’s nominee for deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, also testified earlier this week.

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The CCA initiative envisions using highly autonomous uncrewed systems to serve as robotic wingmen for manned fighter jets and perform other missions. The service plans to develop and field new iterations of these types of platforms over time.

Last year, General Atomics and Anduril each received contracts for the development-for-production phase of Increment 1. Both companies completed their Critical Design Reviews in recent months.

The first increment of CCA is expected to largely focus on air-to-air capabilities.

However, officials are already looking at what might be included in the next set.

“Increment 2 planning is ongoing right now. And so the stage we’re at in that planning is mission-level modeling and understanding like just how a CCA that looks different, maybe fully different, or maybe just an iteration of what we currently have — how those would play. And so we haven’t … narrowed down this environment from, you know, more exquisite on one side to less exquisite and a lot cheaper on the other side. We’re still … in the [phase of determining], you know, what do we think it really needs to be? And there’s a lot of operational analysis that goes into it, and industry has been providing a lot of operational analysis in this space as well, because there are benefits to having something that’s less exquisite, and there are also benefits to having something that’s more exquisite and has more capability,” Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, director of force design, integration and wargaming at the Air Force Futures organization, said during a pre-recorded Defense One event that aired Tuesday.

A top Air Force acquisition official previously told DefenseScoop that observers shouldn’t expect “straight-line” capability advancements from one increment of CCA to the next.

Other officials have noted that the service must balance capability and cost.

“We thought for CCA Increment 1, we kind of went, you know, Goldilocks right in the middle, right in the middle of what it could be. And we think that’s about right to start. Where we go in the future with, you know, is it going to be something that’s much cheaper that, you know, may not even be ground-launched or doesn’t need a runway or can be launched via rocket, or something like that — that’s something that, you know, we’re looking at — all the way to others, which is something that’s, you know, more exquisite, carries more weapons, you know, has more missions. We’re looking at that entire space right now,” Kunkel said.

Having drones that don’t require runways would give the Air Force more options and operational flexibility.

“We’re excited about CCA Increment 1. All of our analysis says it’s going to be great. Hold on for CCA Increment 2 because it’s going to be another game-changer for us,” Kunkel said.

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