The Air Force is planning to field drones known as collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) that will act as force multipliers by flying alongside manned fighter jets — like the F-35 and the forthcoming Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) system, and potentially other platforms.

While the Air Force’s CCA program is still in its early stages, PACAF Commander Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said the service is looking at how the Royal Australian Air Force deploys its own robotic wingman — the MQ-28 Ghost Bat — to help learn how to operate manned and unmanned aircraft in tandem.

“We really look forward to what they’re doing with the MQ-28 Ghost Bat,” Wilsbach said during an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute. “They’re doing some great work figuring out exactly how to use this aircraft, and we look forward to seeing what they learn and then, perhaps, applying that to our CCA program ourselves.”

The Boeing-made Ghost Bat made its first flight with the Australians in 2021 and is slated to enter service by 2025. The drone is meant to fly with the Royal Australian Air Force’s fleet of aircraft to conduct a range of missions, including intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and tactical early warning.

The U.S. Air Force wants 1,000 CCA platforms in its own fleet that not only augment manned platforms with multi-role capabilities, but also create dilemmas for adversaries, Wilsbach said.

“Imagine if they had to deal with 1,000 additional combat aircraft that can do multiple things. They can be sensors, they can be weapons platforms, they can be decoys, they can be jammers, they can be a lot of different things,” he said. “And so the ability to create dilemmas and mass up those dilemmas on your adversary causes them to make mistakes, it causes them to use weapons, and it eventually will cause them to lose their assets versus us.”

Wilsbach also emphasized that CCA can fly dangerous missions in place of manned aircraft, reducing the risk of pilots being harmed.

The U.S. Air Force is requesting more than $500 million in research, development, test and evaluation funding for CCA and related efforts in fiscal 2024, and plans to spend more than $6 billion on these activities over the next five years. The money would go towards platform development, autonomy development and creating a specialized unit to explore operational concepts.

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The future unmanned aerial systems — a top priority of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall — are expected to be more autonomous than today’s drones and operate as part of a team with manned fighter jets and other aircraft.

However, the initial iteration of these types of platforms won’t function like an airborne “Terminator,” Maj. Gen. R. Scott Jobe, director of plans, programs and requirements at Air Combat Command, told reporters during a media roundtable at the Pentagon on Thursday.

“For the warfighting requirements, we did not swing for the fences — we went for a base hit. So, I’m not talking about Terminator … [level of] autonomy,” he said.

The Air Force is still pondering what the pilot-vehicle interface (PVI) will be for the airmen overseeing the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), but “a whole lot of work” will be done in that regard in 2023, he noted.

The PVI probably won’t be a “hands-on” stick or throttle. However, airmen could send commands to the drones using something like a tablet or buttons, officials say.

“We’re still exploring all those technologies. But we see it more along the lines of, I’m going to be able to issue some behavioral commands and do some mission planning — a combination of those two — until I get to the point where I need to lethally or non-lethally engage with an effect. That’s going to be a human on the loop for the foreseeable future. We just don’t see a path right now for us to field a [fully autonomous drone] capability that both is effective in this warfighting capacity, but also supports American values and the law of armed conflict,” Jobe said.

“I’m not going to have this robot go out and just start shooting at things [on its own]. That’s not something we’re going to do. So, there’ll be a human in or on the loop in that way for sure to be able to target a particular track, communicate with the CCA vehicle and then have it engage. Just think of it as just an extension of your weapons bay if you’re in an F-22, F-35 [pilot] or whatnot,” he added.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, director of plans and deputy chief of staff for plans and programs at Air Force headquarters, said: “There will be a person that consents to weapons coming off an airplane … if there’s going to be lethal effects employed.”

He envisions an operational scenario where an airman could issue orders to a CCA along the lines of “live, live, die” — to tell the drone which potential targets it should destroy or not engage.

Jobe noted that an airman might also have to give the green light before a CCA could employ certain “non-kinetic” tools — not just missiles.

In military parlance, the term “non-kinetic” is often applied to things like electronic warfare or cyberattacks.

“You could easily see some non-kinetic effectors being just as bad if things go wrong than a kinetic effect [with missiles or other weapons]. But I think our initial thoughts … are it’s probably some sort of designation on a screen or a button or something in a cockpit with a person flying in the vicinity of one of these [making those decisions to launch an attack] — at least early on,” he said.

However, officials do want the drones to be able to perform a variety of other functions autonomously. That includes actions like take-off and landing, flying in formation, station keeping and routing.

Air Force officials have been laying the groundwork for a future CCA program of record. That includes science-and-technology initiatives like the Air Force Research Lab’s Skyborg program; modeling and simulation; identifying requirements; and developing tactics, techniques and procedures, among other efforts.

The service has been engaging with contractors as it explores the drone technology, including testing autonomy capabilities with contractor-provided UAS.

“What we’ve already been able to identify with our engagements with industry and looking at our analytics is kind of the broad requirements, attributes of air vehicles, what we need with communications capabilities, and what different missions we could do with what type of sensors and weaponry,” Jobe said.

The requirements work has involved looking at speed, range, endurance, sustained turn rates and autonomy behaviors, he noted.

“We’re doing the follow-on work right now of exploring, OK, how do we train our airmen to do [teaming with the CCAs]? What would an organizational structure look like? What would a squadron of the future of these things look like? … We just started all of that. But we’re moving pretty fast in the requirements pieces and the concepts of operations,” he said.

The Pentagon is putting together its 2024 program objective memorandum, and the next DOD budget request is expected to be delivered to Congress in the spring.

“We’re not gonna get ahead of the ‘24 budget. But what I can say is, when our budget goes across the river, you’re going to see a significant investment in this [CCA initiative]. And the secretary’s guidance to me was: Resource this so we can field the capability as soon as possible. So, you’ll see a significant investment not only in the program but also in some risk-reduction efforts as well to help us field an operational capability as soon as possible,” Kunkel said.

Officials at the roundtable declined to say how long it would take to field the drones once a formal program of record is launched. However, senior service officials have said they hope to have them ready in time for the rollout of the manned Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) stealth fighter that the drones will be teamed with. Secretary Kendall has said he hopes the NGAD will have operational capability by 2030.

The service plans to hold an industry competition for the CCA program with multiple vendors involved in the development phase for as long as possible, according to Brig. Gen. Dale White, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft.

“I think we’ll probably once the competition phase is done, we’ll have a singular vehicle,” Jobe told reporters. “Later on, though, I think we’ll see missions expand, I think we’ll see capability development continue, I think we’ll probably see different vehicles” procured at some point.

The Air Force hopes to field the first iteration of robotic wingmen as soon as possible to maintain an edge over China. However, the service aims to grow CCA capabilities over time, White noted.

“We’re also looking at what’s next and what’s the art of the possible,” Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Lab, told reporters. The service wants to “keep the science-and-technology pipeline running and just keep going and keep looking for the next level of autonomy and the next and the next and the next.”

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The Air Force plans to field robotic wingmen, or “collaborative combat aircraft,” to serve as force multipliers and keep pilots out of harm’s way.

At the annual Air, Space and Cyber conference, DefenseScoop asked Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach if PACAF had started thinking through operating concepts for those types of systems in the Indo-Pacific where Pentagon leaders view China as the top threat.

“Yes. And I would say it’s in the very beginning stages because, you know, in all candor we’re just starting to see the initial actual technology start to reach the field,” he replied during a media roundtable.

A number of questions need to be answered as the U.S. military and its allies consider how the systems could be employed, he noted.

“The first one is what do we want it to do? … Do we want it to be a sensor? Do we want it to be a shooter? Do we want it to be a relay platform? Do we want it to be a decoy? … I guess I want it to do all of that,” Wilsbach said.

Another issue to be sorted out is how much autonomy the platforms should have.

“Will it be completely autonomous? In other words, will there be artificial intelligence such that you program the CCA to go do a mission and it knows how to do that, much like if there was a human in the cockpit — we’ve trained them to be able to do the mission, and even if there’s … no connection into the network, the human can accomplish the mission because they have a brain? So, will that be how we employ these? Or will they be remotely piloted? And if remotely piloted, will they be flown from another aircraft?” he said.

For example, if the drones are to be remotely operated rather than being fully autonomous, the Air Force needs to figure out whether the drones would be flown from an aircraft like the E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control system, another fighter jet, or some other platform.

“There’s quite a bit of work that we need to do. But I am a big fan of this CCA technology because I believe it will allow us to bring mass against our adversaries. That will be pretty difficult to contend with,” Wilsbach said.

In that scenario, enemies could be overwhelmed by potential targets and have trouble determining which U.S. aircraft they should try to shoot down first.

“It’s a pretty hard environment to operate in. And so if we can present that to our adversaries, it’ll give us an advantage,” Wilsbach said.

He noted that U.S. allies in the region are also working on robotic wingmen technology and thinking through operating concepts, mentioning Australia and its Ghost Bat platform as an example.

DefenseScoop asked Wilsbach if he envisions future scenarios in which the U.S. Air Force’s robotic wingmen could accompany allies’ manned aircraft into combat, or vice versa. U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown highlighted the possibility of such Friday during an international air chiefs conference in Washington on Friday.

“I don’t want to get in front of anybody, but … of course. I mean, we do that with our manned platforms. Why wouldn’t we do it with our, you know, with our uncrewed aircraft?” he said.

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“This trend line of using drones or uncrewed aircraft — we’re already on a trend line. Matter of fact, we’re in some cases looking to accelerate that trend line in how you do you team crewed and uncrewed aircraft. So one of the areas that our Air Force is focused on is collaborative combat aircraft. It’s the aspects of how you’re able to use some uncrewed systems to complement the crewed systems and with a level of autonomy. That’s a scenario that we are focused on … Allies and partners are also looking down that path as well,” Brown said during remarks at the conference, adding that such systems are expected to be part of future warfare.

The Pentagon has been working on manned-unmanned teaming technology as part of the Air Force Research Lab’s Skyborg program and other efforts. Air Force leaders have said there will be funding for a new “collaborative combat aircraft” program in the fiscal 2024 budget request. The service aims to eventually pair these platforms operationally with a new manned stealth fighter under development — known as the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) system — and potentially other platforms.

Meanwhile, several European governments that are members of NATO are pursuing their own robotic wingmen as part of their Future Combat Air System programs. And Australia, another close U.S. ally, is pursuing similar technology as part of its Ghost Bat program, which was formally known as the Loyal Wingman project.

On the sidelines of Friday’s international air chiefs conference, DefenseScoop asked Brown if he envisions allies providing autonomous drones that could be teamed with the U.S. Air Force’s NGAD fighter.

Brown replied that such systems wouldn’t necessarily be paired with NGAD, “but I think there’s a various number of platforms you can actually do that with. So I know there’s other allies and partners that have interest in doing some of this — some of the same work as well.”

DefenseScoop also asked Brown if he’d had discussions with his counterparts during the international air chiefs conference about opportunities for these types of allied contributions.

“Not in detail because we just got started,” he said.

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Introducing unmanned “collaborative combat aircraft” (CCA) as part of a new family of systems for the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program is a top operational imperative for Air Force leadership.

“We are definitely heading down the path of [teaming] crewed and uncrewed aircraft. In fact, I was just in a meeting this morning to talk about the aspect of autonomy and how that plays into our collaborative combat aircraft and where we’re headed,” Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. said Monday at an event hosted by the American Enterprise Institute think tank. “A lot of our focus is … to be able to bring on these combat collaborative aircraft that can actually, you know, be a sensor, be a shooter, be a weapons carrier and reduce the cost of operations.”

While the Air Force is planning to deploy these systems with the manned NGAD platform — a next-generation stealth fighter that is expected to come online around 2030 — it is also examining other options for pairing robotic jets with other crewed systems to include tankers and airborne early-warning and control platforms.

“What we’re looking at is not necessarily to do it solely within NGAD. How do you do it with the F-35 [joint strike fighter], for example? How do you use it with other platforms? Could you operate it from a ground station? Could you operate it from a seat on an E-7 Wedgetail or a KC-46?” Brown said. “We want to not constrain ourselves just to say it’s only going to be tied to the Next-Generation Air Dominance platform, but you know, how do we look at it from a broader perspective as well.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said the manned NGAD fighter could achieve initial operational capability by the end of this decade. The service’s top weapons buyer, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Andrew Hunter, has said the goal is to have the collaborative combat aircraft ready for fielding by the time that platform comes online.

However, when asked about the timeline by FedScoop on Monday, Brown declined to say whether he expects that goal to be achieved. “That’s a good question,” he replied before talking about other types of systems that CCA could team with.

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The Air Force plans to create a “family of systems” for its Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to develop a stealthy sixth-generation fighter as well as drones — also referred to as autonomous “collaborative combat aircraft” (CCA) — and various mission systems that could accompany them into battle. The service has outlined a similar vision for the B-21 Raider, its next-gen stealth bomber.

The NGAD platform recently entered the critical engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, and the B-21 could achieve first flight as early as next year.

The Air Force will be “trying to take multiple capabilities from within a family of systems and execute them within a program office, but not as a single rigid, monolithically integrated platform, while at the same time having different program offices building different pieces of the solution that can still be interoperable and work together,” Tim Grayson, special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force, said Thursday during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute.

Grayson previously served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Strategic Technology Office, which is focused on technologies that enable military forces to fight as a network.

He used a football analogy to describe the Air Force’s operational concept for robotic wingmen and manned-unmanned teaming, noting how football teams develop, integrate and swap out different specialty players.

“One of the interesting things that’s come out of the [operational imperative] studies — and I can’t in this forum go into details of the specific functions or missions — but we’ve seen examples of where you might take a CCA platform capability inspired by some of the NGAD work, but not deploy it with an NGAD. It might actually be launched and, at least for initial deployment, operated by some other additional entity. And then later on in the fight reform a new formation … reform even a new team, where you know the command and control might fall over to a different platform,” he said.

“We’ve even seen some of this in some of the studies that have been done between NGAD and B-21, you know, where there could be a little bit of … dynamic mix and match there of who’s going to form the offensive line, so to speak, and who’s going to be the quarterback,” he added.

However, integration of compatible data links and software will be essential so that drones can be paired with multiple types and variants of manned platforms, he noted.

“I do see the need to create some degree of synchrony and harmonization, you know, whether or not it’s a program office buying these different … classes and models of CCAs and some of the supporting mission systems, whether it’s something like an ABMS [Advanced Battle Management System] that works architecture and figures out how to create some of the compatibility,” he said.

Grayson highlighted the “primacy of software” in these families of systems that will need to be adaptive, evolving and interconnected with the assistance of industry.

“I may have situations where I need to go have very software-intensive developers, and that could be actually people writing code. More likely it’s some of these more light system integrators … but still digitally oriented kinds of functions that in some cases may act almost more like a prime [contractor], you know, where they could be out there contracted to define and compose one of these architectures that oh, by the way, happens to include a platform,” he said.

“I think those are the two big business models we need to be moving toward, you know, one where we can do major hardware systems more as a dynamic family of systems within a contained program structure, and then another one that’s almost more of a services-based mindset of how we do the integration itself and the digital piece,” he added.

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