DAYTON, Ohio–While U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has set out a planning number of up to five Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) for deployment by a Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) manned fighter or Lockheed Martin
[LMT] F-35A, Air Force CCA programmers are examining a range of options.
Asked whether five was still the Air Force’s working number for the high end of CCAs to be used by a manned fighter, Air Force Brig. Gen. Dale White, the program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, told reporters on Aug. 1 that the Air Force intends to “break the mold” with CCA, as DoD has traditionally wanted “to grasp onto a firm requirement and then close the door.”
“We are continuing to look at what the art of the possible is, and the way you do that is you put operators in a virtual seat, and let them fly with me in a virtual environment,” White said during a question and answer session at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s annual industry days conference here. “What does massive saturation look like, depending on the mission set? We will continue to let that operational analysis, which we’ve spent so much time doing with industry, help us define the way forward. We’re going to use that data to help define what the art of the possible is. Of course, future testing will be less virtual, and we’ll see how this plays out. But that will be defined. I think even Secretary Kendall admitted that that’s [the five CCA’s] just kind of a planning mark, and that’s kind of the path we’re on. But we’ll let the operational analysis kind of lead the way for us.”
In May, the Air Force said that it had released a classified solicitation in expectation of an Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) award for the NGAD manned fighter next year (Defense Daily, May 18).
The NGAD program also includes CCAs. Air Force plans call for 1,000 CCAs to be employed by 200 NGAD manned fighters and 300 F-35As. The Air Force has said that CCA is not part of next year’s EMD source selection for NGAD.
Kendall said in May that, in contrast to the NGAD manned fighter, the Air Force is to award contracts to more than one CCA builder.
Asked how many vendors the Air Force plans to have for CCA, Kendall replied, “We haven’t finalized that yet–as many as possible.”
Section 218(f) of the House Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill–a section entitled NGAD Family of Systems Development Program Accountability Matrices–divides CCAs into three categories–an up to $3 million “expendable” CCA, an up to $10 million attritable CCA that can be an “occasional combat loss,” and “exquisite”–a multiple sortie, up to $25 million drone “not considered an acceptable combat loss.”
The House authorizers also want a report from Kendall on plans for “high-volume manufacturing of large attritable engine technologies for CCA.”
“The committee remains concerned about reports that China is expanding its exclusive economic zone and recognizes that successful combat air operations in an Indo-Pacific contingency will be increasingly dependent on unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) to supplement finite numbers of fifth and sixth generation fighter aircraft,” the House authorizers said in their report on their fiscal 2024 bill. “The committee encourages continued clarification of manned-unmanned aircraft teaming concepts and investment in cost-effective, limited-life technologies to facilitate this emerging warfighting concept. Additionally, the committee supports the use of these technologies as a sustainable long-term training solution for adversary air applications, which will become increasingly critical as the Department of Defense seeks to resolve its current pilot shortage and pilot training deficiencies.”