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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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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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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“We’ve just finished up, basically, critical design review for both Anduril and General Atomics. Both industry teammates are on the path to get to first flight in a timeline that allows us to get operational capability by the end of the decade,” Col. Timothy Helfrich, senior materiel leader for Air Force Materiel Command’s Advanced Aircraft Division, said during a panel at the Mitchell Institute’s Airpower Futures Forum. 

General Atomics and Anduril each received contracts from the Air Force in April for the development-for-production phase of CCA Increment 1, beating out defense giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing for the award. Under the effort’s current phase, the two firms are creating detailed designs, manufacturing drones and conducting flight tests for the CCA Increment 1 airframe.

As part of the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, the CCA drones are intended to fly alongside the service’s manned platforms to augment its aircraft fleet for the service’s air dominance mission. The drones will carry equipment for a range of missions — including offensive strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Now that Anduril and General Atomics have completed CDR — verifying their CCA airframe design maturity for potential development and production phases — both companies are gearing up to conduct first flight tests slated for 2025.

“I would say that we have matured the design to a critical point where we feel confident that it’s moving forward,” Diem Salmon, vice president for air dominance and strike at Anduril, told a small group of reporters after the panel. “Fabrication is moving very quickly, and it’s getting to the path where we’re going to be able to integrate and support the first flight that is, more or less, around the corner.”

As Anduril prepares to fly its offering for CCA Increment 1 — dubbed Fury — the defense startup is in the process of building the test article and testing sub-components before integration onto the airframe, Salmon said. 

General Atomics is also on track to fly a variant of the Gambit family of drones it is proposing for CCA Increment 1 by mid-2025, and it’s taking cues from its successful flight demonstration of the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station in February, a company spokesperson told DefenseScoop in a statement.

Mike Shortsleeve, vice president of strategy business development for General Atomics, said during the panel that the company is leveraging its decades of experience in designing and building unmanned aircraft as it prepares for the first flight.

“When we did the XQ-67A, that effort to build that x-plane — with about 70 to 80 percent carried over into what would be CCA — that helped us to understand not only how that design needs to work, but also how do you actually build it right,” Shortsleeve said.

The Air Force expects to make a competitive production decision for the CCA Increment 1 in fiscal 2026 and plans to field the first batch of systems before the end of the decade.

Helfrich added that the service is on the cusp of kicking off development for the next group of CCA drones known as Increment 2. The Air Force is currently conducting analysis “to make sure we understand what are the right mission use cases for Increment 2 and the top-level attributes. This fiscal year, we will kick off concept refinement, where we then bring in industry to help us further refine what those attributes are and whittle down those use-cases,” he said.

Each iteration of CCAs is expected to feature different capabilities based on the latest technology industry can offer the Air Force at the time. Once fielded, the service will determine which mix of increments will fly for certain missions based on the capabilities they’re carrying to meet specific force designs, Helfrich said.

“No one should think that Increment 2 means ‘Increment 1 plus.’ … That doesn’t mean that Increment 2 has more capability,” he said. “We’re still looking to figure out whether the right balance — if you’re doing the analysis — is to further bring down the capability to maximize a low cost, or is it that I need to change what the focus is from a missile truck to something else.”

In the meantime, the Air Force is also establishing an experimental operations unit that will focus on doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, facilities, and policy concepts related to the CCA drones. During an event hosted by Defense One on Wednesday, Air Force acquisition head said he recently approved additional CCA purchases to equip the unit and enable experimentation with real drones.

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The contractor is partnering with the service and the two vendors competing in the ongoing development-for-production phase of CCA Increment 1 to incorporate the weapons onto the drones, Jon Norman, Raytheon’s vice president of air and space defense systems requirements and capability, said during a meeting with reporters Tuesday. News about plans to equip the uncrewed systems with the missile was first reported by Air and Space Forces Magazine in July.

“We’ve been working with the Air Force with their collaborative combat aircraft, and they’re integrating that onto the [Increment 1]. They’re still in the early requirements phase for CCA [Increment 2],” Norman said. 

Part of the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, CCA drones are intended to fly alongside the service’s fifth- and sixth-generation manned aircraft in the future. The department intends to rapidly produce the uncrewed platforms to begin testing them in operations before the end of the decade.

The Air Force is planning to design and field the systems in increments in order to gradually iterate and improve their capabilities. Service leaders have said the unmanned aircraft will carry a range of equipment in order to accomplish multiple missions — from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to offensive strike.

Norman said the Air Force has set the AIM-120 as “a threshold weapon” for the drones.

“Now you can have a controlling aircraft — whether that’s an [F-35 Lightning II] or an [F-22 Raptor] — that can use those collaborative combat aircraft as a force extender, so they have more munitions available,” he said. “With the collaborative combat aircraft, now it has a platform out there that’s in the right position, survivable, and it can employ AMRAAMs guided and directed by the F-35 or by the F-22.”

In April, Anduril and General Atomics were awarded contracts to create detailed designs, manufacture and conduct flight tests for the first batch of CCAs, known as Increment 1. Once the service nails down its preferred design, the two companies — as well as any other vendors interested — will be able to compete for the final production contract expected to be made in 2026.

The service will display full-scale models of both company’s prototypes during AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber conference in September, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said Tuesday during the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Aerospace Summit.

Raytheon has spent significant time redesigning the missile to add improvements in range, navigation and anti-jamming technology. Although the company did not share which specific variant of the AMRAAM is being integrated onto the CCAs, the range of the newest variant — the AIM-120D — is estimated to be around 100 miles.

Norman said the contractor is currently preparing for a round of tests under the Air Force’s Weapon System Evaluation program to further demonstrate the AMRAAMs range for extended shots. The company didn’t alter anything with the missile’s propulsion system, but changed how it flies for long-range shots so that it has more kinetic energy when it hits targets, he explained.

“What that does is it brings us back into parity, and we actually exceed a lot of the capability of all the pacing threats worldwide. So, it makes AMRAAM kind of future-proof,” Norman said.

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The five companies — which are being kept classified for security reasons — recently received contracts to develop the autonomy software that will be integrated into the first batch of the next-generation drones, Brig. Gen. Jason Voorheis, PEO for fighters and advanced aircraft, told reporters Monday at the Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days.

“We have vendor pools that those five are selected from, and there will be a down-select process based on knowledge gained over time as a function of performance of those autonomy vendors,” Voorheis said. “We will get down to a lower number of those vendors, and they will create an autonomy implementation that will be applied to CCA Increment 1.” 

The Air Force has previously said it is working with a consortium of around 30 vendors to develop mission autonomy for CCAs, which is part of the family of systems for the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. Once fielded, the drones will fly alongside manned aircraft and conduct a range of missions, from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to offensive strike.

The industry consortium has created a government reference architecture based on previous work done by the Air Force Research Laboratory. The architecture establishes baseline interfaces and standards, subsequently allowing the Air Force to hold a separate competition for CCA mission autonomy, Voorheis said.

Although details about what the vendors are specifically doing are being kept behind closed doors, the contract mechanisms being used for autonomy are similar to the process the service is using for the CCA air vehicles, said Col. Timothy Helfrich, director of the Agile Development Office and senior materiel leader of the Advanced Aircraft Division at the Air Force.

“We’ve also built in very specific touch points, where autonomy and aircraft models are being passed back and forth between the autonomy vendors and their vehicle vendors,” Helfrich told DefenseScoop. “And then, the Air Force has an independent way to assess both of those to ensure that they’re working well together.”

In April, Anduril and General Atomics beat out Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing for the development-for-production phase of CCA Increment 1. The two companies are now gearing up to conduct flight tests of their respective air vehicle designs before a final production decision will be made in 2026, Voorheis said.

A final award for Increment 1 mission autonomy is expected to occur around the same timeframe as the air vehicle, he said.

“We have the flexibility to make them separate contracts,” Helfrich added. “We want to fundamentally sustain as much competition as we can throughout all lifecycles, and so keeping it separate and keeping different vendor pools alive is in line with how we’re funding for CCA.”

Moving forward, the Air Force is honing in on what requirements will be part of CCA Increment 2. The service plans to begin the formal concept design phase for the next batch in fiscal 2025, and it’s looking to open up the program to international partners to be able to collaborate on development, Voorheis said.

At the same time, the service is parsing out what propulsion requirements will be included in that increment. While Anduril and General Atomics are both responsible for the propulsion systems in their drone designs for Increment 1, the Air Force is planning to award a separate contract for detailed prototype studies on propulsion options for CCA Increment 2 and beyond, John Sneden, director of propulsion at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, told reporters Monday during another roundtable.

The Air Force released a request for information in 2023 that indicated it was targeting a thrust range of 3,000 to 8,000 pounds of force for the systems, but Sneden emphasized that the final requirements are still being considered. He noted the RFI was intended to survey what the propulsion industry would be able to provide for CCAs, as well as the technology options it could pursue in the three-, five- and seven-year timeframes.

“A lot of our movement has just been really to assess what is in the art of the possible from a propulsion capability perspective,” Sneden said. “We’re not necessarily locked to any specific thrust class right now, and we’re trying to stay open.”

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General Atomics, which produces large unmanned systems capable of flying for long periods at altitudes of 29,000-to-50,000 feet, believes the AESA will increase the range of its systems and provide more enhancements.

“We expect the AESA antenna to more than double the range for EagleEye,” Jeff Hettick, General Atomics vice president of agile mission systems, said in a release. “The increased range and optimized multi-mode performance of the radar are perfectly tailored to provide deep sensing capability in Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). That will allow the aircraft to operate well outside Weapons Effects Zone of most threat systems adding a layer of survivability supporting the Stand-Off survivability with Stand-In effects of long-range sensors.”

The military expects conflicts against potential near-peer and sophisticated nation-states to take place over greater distances than those during the war on terror. As a result, the Army, in particular, has talked about the requirement for so-called “deep sensing” to develop targets and shoot them accurately across thousands of miles.

Advanced enemy radar, anti-aircraft capabilities and long-range missiles will likely push U.S. assets farther away from their targets than in the past, necessitating the need to collect inside that so-called weapons engagement zone. Capabilities such as the Gray Eagle, which can fly at around 25,000 feet, can see over the horizon and above the curvature of the Earth to conduct intelligence and collect certain enemy capabilities.

The AESA antenna will be a “drop-in” hardware upgrade to the EagleEye, the company said, providing associated software with the system as well.

The upgrades will be housed on the Gray Eagle 25M, a part of the Gray Eagle modernization for the Army. The Army has been flying MQ-1C Gray Eagles for over a decade, with newer variants for longer range and power being provided through the years. The 25M provides up to five times more processing capacity and 80 times more data storage for increased computing power enabling processing at the edge, the company said, first testing its flight in December 2023.

Company officials stated that General Atomics is investing in its EagleEye product specifically for the Army. The company currently supports the Army’s interim synthetic-aperture radar requirements as part of the 25M configuration, though the new product enhancement has not been selected yet.

The addition of an AESA antenna is significant given the increased capabilities it provides both from a sensing and effects perspective. The radars are much more powerful and more capable than legacy systems enabling many more signals across a wider distance. Their ability to beam signals also enables the capability to produce non-kinetic effects in the radio-frequency sphere, such as limited electronic attack and cyber capabilities over radio frequency.

When Special Operations Command had sought AESA radars on some of its platforms, the commander of Air Force Special Operations Command at the time noted that capability “opens up a host of possibilities for everything from airborne electronic attack and airborne cyber effects and things of that nature that up to now have not been part of our portfolio,” according to The War Zone.

General Atomics declined to talk specifics about the system’s electronic warfare and cyber capabilities, only offering that it is correct to assert the company is focused on keeping not only mission systems but the whole aircraft as relevant as possible ahead of potential threats.

Lockheed Martin is producing an external pod for the Army that will be mounted aboard Gray Eagles to conduct airborne electronic warfare — with limited cyber capability — organic to combat aviation brigades. While this pod will be specially outfitted for these missions and limited, AESA capabilities resident on a platform provide the platform organic capabilities, albeit not as powerful as external systems.

Overall, the company states the AESA antenna and associated software for EagleEye will provide significant performance enhancements, particularly in range and mode.

“This is a key component of the Gray Eagle 25M (GE 25M) Unmanned Aircraft System being developed for the U.S. Army,” said C. Mark Brinkley, a company spokesman. “We know these enhancements make the EagleEye radar a better, more capable product. Which is what our customers want.”

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The two firms beat out defense giants Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing for the development-for-production phase of the drone program. According to an Air Force release, the service plans to make a competitive production decision for the first increment of CCAs in fiscal 2026 and is on track to field the systems before the end of the decade.

“We executed an acquisition and funding strategy for CCA with early operator, technologist, acquirer, and industry teaming to quickly iterate requirements given our fielding timelines,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a statement. “Continuous competition is a cornerstone at every stage of this program. The transparency and teamwork between industry and government really accelerated how quickly we could mature the CCA program.”

As part of the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems, the CCA drones are intended to fly alongside the service’s sixth-generation fighter jets and current fifth-generation platforms to augment its manned aircraft fleet. The drones will carry equipment for a range of missions — including offensive strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The Air Force plans to field CCAs in increments, and General Atomics and Anduril will now work to create the final design for the first iteration known as Increment 1. During the annual AFA Warfare Symposium in February, Kendall told reporters that the Air Force initially wanted to move three vendors into the next phase of Increment 1, but the current budget would only support two.

The service is requesting $557 million for program in its fiscal 2025 budget request and plans to spend almost $9 billion on the effort through fiscal 2029. The Air Force is expected to eventually buy at least 1,000 systems for around $30 million per drone.

According to the release, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and others will all be able to compete for the upcoming Increment 1 production contract — albeit likely with their own research-and-development dollars. There are currently more than 20 companies in the potential pool of vendors that can compete for future CCA efforts.

“As we navigate the next phase of CCA development, our collaboration with both current and potential industry partners remains pivotal. Their expertise, innovation, and resources are instrumental in driving this initiative forward, ensuring its success and impact on future operations,” Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said in a statement.

General Atomics’ CCA prototype is based off its XQ-67A drone, which had its first successful flight in February as part of the Air Force Research Lab’s Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing (LCAAPS) program. Through the next phase of the CCA program, the company plans to complete autonomy and mission system tests on both the XQ-67A and its MQ-20 Avenger prototype, according to a press release.

“Throughout our 30-year history, GA-ASI has been at the forefront of rapidly advancing unmanned aircraft systems that support our warfighters,” GA-ASI President David Alexander said in a statement. “The USAF is moving forward with GA-ASI due to our focused commitment to unmanned air-to-air combat operations and unmatched UAS experience, ensuring the production of the CCA aircraft at scale to deliver affordable combat mass for the warfighter.”

While Anduril did not immediately provide details on its CCA prototype, the relatively new company has recently inked multiple defense contracts to develop and build unmanned systems for the U.S. military.

“With the CCA program, Secretary Kendall and the Air Force have embraced a fast-moving, forward-looking approach to field autonomous systems at speed and scale,” Brian Schimpf, Anduril CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “We are honored to be selected for this unprecedented opportunity, which signals a demand for continued expansion of the defense industrial base. Anduril is proud to pave the way for other non-traditional defense companies to compete and deliver on large scale programs.”

Air Force officials also indicated that they’re looking at how international partners can participate in the CCA program as a way to offer “affordable mass at scale” and promote international integration and interoperability. That includes potential foreign military sales, per the release.

As for Increment 2, planning for development is still underway and the Air Force intends to begin “initial activities” before the end of the year. As the capabilities in each increment are being determined by the technology available within the service’s fielding timelines, it is possible that Increment 2 will have different requirements compared to Increment 1.

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The demo took place Nov. 15 off the coast of Virginia. The trial came as the United Kingdom, United States and other nations’ militaries are pursuing new robotic platforms for strike, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and other missions.

The drone’s avionics and flight control systems stem from General Atomics’ MQ-1C Gray Eagle and the iconic MQ-9 Reaper. The technology also leverages U.S. Army investments in open architecture, autonomy and “machine learning processing” capabilities, according to the manufacturer.

The platform is 29 feet long with a 52-foot wingspan. It can fly for more than 25 hours, carry up to 16 Hellfire missiles and ISR equipment, reach an altitude of 25,000 feet, and fly at a top speed of 140 knots, per a product description.

During this week’s demo, which entailed takeoff, circuits, approaches and landing back onto the Prince of Wales, the UAS was remotely operated from a control station onboard the aircraft carrier, General Atomics said in a release.

The flight deck of the ship is 70 meters wide and 280 meters long, according to the Royal Navy.

The sea service has been operating drones from its carriers — including hand-launched systems — but they are smaller than the Mojave and aren’t capable of performing long-endurance missions, it noted in a release.

“The Mojave trial is a European first – the first time that a Remotely Piloted Air System of this size has operated to and from an aircraft carrier outside of the United States,” Rear Adm. James Parkin, director develop for the Royal Navy, said in a statement. “The success of this trial heralds a new dawn in how we conduct maritime aviation and is another exciting step in the evolution of the Royal Navy’s carrier strike group into a mixed crewed and uncrewed fighting force.”

The event had been highly anticipated after plans for it were announced earlier this year.

“With so many international partners interested in the results of these Mojave trials on board HMS Prince of Wales, I am delighted that we are taking the lead in such exciting and important work to unlock the longer-term potential of the aircraft carrier and push it deep into the 21st Century as a highly-potent striking capability,” Second Sea Lord Vice Adm. Martin Connell said in a statement.

The demo came about three months after General Atomics tested the Mojave’s ability to conduct short takeoffs and landings on a dirt strip near El Mirage, California.

“We knew our STOL capability would enable a UAS to safely take off and land on the Prince of Wales. Seeing our Mojave operate successfully in this environment opens myriad new ways our aircraft can be used to support multi-domain naval operations,” General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. CEO Linden Blue said in a statement Friday.

The company is also planning for a STOL variant of the larger and more capable MQ-9B drone that would also be able to operate from a flat-deck warship, according to the contractor.

C. Mark Brinkley, a General Atomics spokesperson, told DefenseScoop that the company’s STOL capabilities for medium-altitude, long-endurance drones offer possibilities for the U.S. military services, as well as special operations forces.

“We are actively discussing and promoting both the Mojave STOL and MQ-9B STOL concepts at air shows and trade shows around the world, including U.S. military shows, and talking about the possibilities with defense leaders at every opportunity,” he said in an email in August shortly after a demo of the Mojave in California took place.

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The LongShot program aims to develop an unmanned aerial vehicle able to fire multiple air-to-air weapons while flying alongside or ahead of manned aircraft in order to extend ranges and reduce risk, according to a DARPA release. The three-phased effort began in 2021, when General Atomics, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin were all chosen to provide preliminary designs of the drone.

General Atomics now remains the sole prime contractor in the program. After scoring the phase 2 contract to create detailed designs and ground demonstrations of key subsystems in March, the company has moved beyond the critical design review phase and will complete phase 3, according to an award announcement posted to Sam.gov on Wednesday.

A DARPA spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email that the third and final phase of the LongShot program will have General Atomics manufacture and conduct flight tests of its system.

According to the agency’s budget proposal for fiscal 2024, DARPA plans to ramp up fabrication, testing and demonstration of the LongShot flight test vehicle. The $44 million request would be used to integrate the drones into host aircraft and conduct a series of proof-of-concept flight tests and demonstrations.

The LongShot UAV will be able to be launched from manned fighter jets, transports or other aircraft, and will carry munitions to shoot down enemy aerial threats, according to General Atomics. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the phase 3 contract award.

“The LongShot program changes the paradigm of air combat operations by demonstrating an unmanned, air-launched vehicle capable of employing current and advanced air-to-air weapons,” Lt. Col. Paul Calhoun, DARPA program manager, said in a 2021 release after the project kicked off. “LongShot will disrupt traditional incremental weapon improvements by providing an alternative means of generating combat capability.”

Both the Air Force and Navy have become interested in armed robotic wingmen that can fly alongside crewed aircraft. The Air Force is pursuing drones known as “collaborative combat aircraft” that will pair with the service’s sixth-generation Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jets and other manned systems.

At the same time, the Navy is looking to deploy similar platforms with its future carrier air wings. The sea service has been working with the Air Force on the development of both next-generation fighter jets and the accompanying loyal wingman drones.

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