Latest news with #CollaborativeCombatAircraft
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hybrid-Electric GHOST Strike-Recon Drone In The Works For USAF
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded General Atomics a contract for work on what is described as a 'hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial system,' or GHOST. A propulsion system of this kind can offer a very high degree of efficiency, which can translate to significant unrefueled range, as well as being very quiet. General Atomics has publicly touted work in this area in the past, tied in part to its Gambit modular drone family, which it has said could lead to a design capable of staying aloft for up to 60 hours, at least. The Pentagon included AFRL's GHOST award to General Atomics, a cost-plus-fixed-fee deal valued at $99,292,613, in its daily contracting notice today. The full entry reads: 'General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. Poway, California, was awarded a $99,292,613 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial systems (GHOST). This contract provides for the advancement of the hybrid-electric ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial systems to provide capabilities across a spectrum of contested environments. Work will be performed at Poway, California, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 26, 2028. This contract was a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and appropriations funds in the amount of $26,867,479 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA2931-25-C-B035).' Additional details about the GHOST effort, including what plans there might be now to operationalize what the program produces, are scant. TWZ has reached out to AFRL for more information. 'For more than 30 years, General Atomics has advanced unmanned aerial systems in ways never before achieved and often poorly replicated,' C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, told TWZ when asked for more details. 'Satcom [satellite communications] control? Did it. Kinetic strike? That was us. Automatic takeoff and landing? That, too. Unmanned jets? We're building our third.' General Atomics' third jet-powered drone, at least that it has publicly acknowledged, is the YFQ-42A under development now as part of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. It is derived from the experimental XQ-67A drone produced for AFRL's once-secretive Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program. There is also the company's stealthy Avenger uncrewed aircraft. 'We've been promising something impressive related to hybrid-electric propulsion, and now I can't talk about it anymore,' he added. 'That's how it goes with these things. Contrary to what you see on the news, the revolution won't be televised.' In general, hybrid-electric propulsion systems offer improved fuel economy and other benefits by combining fuel-powered engines and electric motors. The system can be paired with batteries of various capacities to achieve its desired performance. Using ducted fans can offer additional performance and other benefits. Hybrid-electric configurations can also help reduce infrared and acoustic signatures on top of other low-observable (stealthy) design features. As noted, General Atomics has been very open in the past about its work on hybrid-electric propulsion involving ducted fans for future stealthy long-endurance drones. 'We are working on hybrid electric propulsion,' Mike Atwood, then Senior Director, Advanced Programs at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), told Breaking Defense in 2022. 'We believe that GA is going to pioneer a completely new way to propel airborne air-breathing [vehicles]. That will be unveiled in the coming years, but it is a completely disruptive technology. It uses a hybrid electric system where it's basically a Tesla Model S and an RQ-170 got together and you have a fully electric aircraft.' Atwood has since become GA-ASI's Vice President for Advanced Programs. At that time, General Atomics had presented a notional concept for a stealthy flying wing-type drone, referred to as MQ-Next, and pitched as a potential successor to the company's still-popular MQ-9. Two years earlier, the Air Force, the largest known operator of MQ-9s, had announced its desire to stop buying those drones largely over concerns about their vulnerability in future high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific. The service has continued to receive additional representatives since then. 'The key to this design is [a] heavy fuel engine, driving very efficient generators and motors. And that way we can get fairly low [fan] speeds, get really good efficiency,' Dave Alexander, GA-ASI's President, also told Breaking Defense in 2022. 'So, this is [a] game changer right here. This is a low-pressure ratio fan, so it's a little tricky and we got to be careful with it. But we believe once we nail this, get the thrust out of it and installed weight, then that'll drive that aircraft [to new lengths.].' Breaking Defense's report added that Alexander had talked about a 60-hour endurance for the MQ-Next concept and described it as particularly well suited for persistent long-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions over the hotly contested South China Sea. He also talked about a goal being for the drone to be able to operate from a 3,000-foot-long rough runway in alignment with the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment (ACE) expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations. Last year, Alexander again highlighted General Atomics' work on hybrid-electric propulsion systems utilizing ducted fans in an interview with Aviation Week on the sidelines of the annual Royal International Air Tattoo in the United Kingdom. At that time, he also directly linked these developments to the Gambit family of modular drones, and the Gambit 4 design in particular. General Atomics has presented a variety of very different potential Gambit drones, but they are all designed around a common 'chassis' that includes landing gear, as well as key mission and flight control computer systems. To date, Gambit 4 has been consistently depicted as a stealthy flying wing-type design intended for long-endurance persistent ISR missions that is fully in line with the MQ-Next concept General Atomics had previously shown, as seen in the video below. 'That part of the Gambit series is still out there and we want to make sure we don't lose sight of that,' Alexander said. 'It's very unique.' 'Heavy Fuel Engine 2.0 in development for the MQ-1C Block 25 is not the basis for Gambit 4's hybrid propulsion system, Alexander said,' Aviation Week's report added. 'A different diesel engine with eight cylinders will be developed to generate the power for the electric motors in Gambit 4.' Without knowing more about the work General Atomics is now doing for AFRL as part of GHOST, it is hard to say specifically what kinds of operational tasks the resulting drone might be capable of performing. However, in previous reporting about broadly similar designs, TWZ has highlighted the value that a stealthy, ultra-quiet drone with significant range and endurance could offer for conducting ISR missions, and doing so covertly, in denied areas. The GHOST contract announcement also mentions the potential for the drones to be capable of performing strike missions. The ability to immediately prosecute at least some targets of opportunity would be another major benefit of this kind of uncrewed aircraft. Northrop Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites is currently working on a different highly efficient and whisper-quiet hybrid-electric flying wing-type drone called the XRQ-73 as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program called the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD). DARPA has been running SHEPARD in cooperation with AFRL, as well as the Office of Naval Research, since 2021. The XRQ-73 design is also a direct outgrowth of the XRQ-72A that Scaled Composites developed for a previous effort called Great Horned Owl (GHO), which the U.S. Intelligence Community's Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) ran from the early 2000s until sometime in the 2010s. AFRL was also involved in GHO. TWZ was the first to report in detail on the XRQ-72A, which featured a hybrid-electric propulsion system with ducted fan propulsors. The U.S. military and U.S. Intelligence Community have a long history of work on ultra-quiet crewed and uncrewed aircraft dating back to the height of the Cold War, and additional relevant developments could well be underway now in the classified realm. It's also worth noting here that the GHOST contract comes amid renewed concerns about the MQ-9's vulnerability even to lower-tier threats following a spate of losses to Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen in the past year or so. With General Atomics now on contract with AFRL for GHOST, it remains to be seen whether more details about that specific effort begin to emerge. Contact the author: joe@
Business Insider
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Here's how Palmer Luckey's Anduril wants to beat General Atomics for the US Air Force's next big bet
Anduril Industries has revealed new details on how it plans to keep costs down for the US Air Force as it competes with defense heavyweight General Atomics for the drone wingman program. The defense startup, cofounded by Palmer Luckey, was featured in a CBS "60 Minutes" segment on Sunday. During the segment, Anduril's CEO, Brian Schimpf, said the firm designed its AI-powered fighter jet, Fury, to be built from commercial parts to make manufacturing easier. "We tried to eliminate really every bottleneck we could find around what makes an aircraft hard to produce," said Schimpf. Schimpf said the Fury's designers, for example, chose to go with a commercial business jet engine instead of a military one. The Warzone reported in 2023 that the Fury was designed with a Williams International FJ44-4M turbofan engine, which is popular in light business jets such as those in the Cessna Citation Series. Anduril didn't say in the Sunday CBS segment if the Fury still uses the same engine. Schimpf also said that the Fury avoids "very exquisite, big aircraft landing gear" in favor of a simpler model. "We designed it so that it can be built in any machine shop in America," he said of the landing gear. "We've designed nearly every part of this that can be made in hundreds of different places within the US from lots of different suppliers," Schimpf added. The Fury, designated YFQ-44A by the Air Force, is Anduril's bid to win the Pentagon's Collaborative Combat Aircraft contract, which seeks to build large autonomous or semi-autonomous drones that can fly in tandem with piloted advanced fighter jets for Next Generation Air Dominance. The service wants these new aircraft to be much cheaper than regular fighter jets. Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force Chief of Staff, said in November that the purpose of the drone wingman program was to bring "affordable mass" to aerial missions. It's a priority that reflects mounting concerns in the US that the American military could run out of weapons and ammo in a matter of weeks or even days if it were to go to war with a rival such as China. Now, the Air Force says the drone wingman program is a core part of its mandate to recalibrate itself for near-peer conflict. Frank Kendall, who served as Air Force Secretary until January, said he'd accelerated plans to develop Collaborative Combat Aircraft when analyses showed the drones would "change air warfare in some very fundamental ways." Anduril was one of two contractors selected to be the drone project's lead in April 2024, meaning it already beat Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman to reach this phase of development. General Atomics, which manufactures the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator, has also billed its offering — the XQ-67A — as a "low-cost, modular" uncrewed system. Both companies' prototypes were shown on May 1 at California's Beale Air Force Base, which Allvin said would be the home site for initial testing and assessments. The Air Force is expected to make early selection decisions in its fiscal year of 2026, which starts in October.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Yahoo
F-47 Now Has An Officially Stated Combat Radius Of 1,000+ Nautical Miles
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin has posted an infographic on his X account that compares his service's 4th, 5th, and future 6th generation fighters, as well as the USAF's forthcoming Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) 'fighter drones.' Albeit very generalized in nature, the graphic provides us with our first official metrics for some of these aircraft, including stating Boeing's F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter will possess a combat radius of '1,000+' nautical miles. Our @usairforce will continue to be the world's best example of speed, agility, and lethality. Modernization means fielding a collection of assets that provide unique dilemmas for adversaries—matching capabilities to threats—while keeping us on the right side of the cost curve. — General David Allvin (@OfficialCSAF) May 13, 2025 What should be the required range and general performance of the Next Generation Air Dominance manned tactical jet (now officially the F-47) is a very important and hot-button topic. Being able to pierce deeply into an enemy's anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) bubble is an absolutely essential feature of the upcoming 6th generation fighter from Boeing. There are strong arguments for putting an absolute premium on range and overall endurance over other performance goals, while a more balanced approach, more akin to a traditional fighter, is also another position being taken by some. We won't dive back into all this in this piece, but while a combat radius of 1,000+ nautical miles is a significant improvement over other fighters currently in the inventory, it isn't as drastic as some may think is necessary for confronting advanced enemy air defenses for many decades to come. Still, at least we are getting clearer indications as to what to expect from the F-47. The 1,000+ nautical mile figure lines up loosely with the Navy's own NGAD fighter initiative, or F/A-XX, which was recently stated as having roughly 25% more range than the service's current fighters. Of the Navy's current tactical jet fleets, the F-35C offers better range than the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. A 25% increase over F-35C would put F/A-XX's combat radius at roughly 850 nautical miles or so. The closer to 50% additional range over existing fighters for the F-47 would make some sense if the basic performance goals were broadly similar to the Navy's, but one had to operate from a carrier and the other had the advantage of flying from fixed airfields. We also don't know what exactly the '+' represents in the F-47 range figure. Is this 50 extra nautical miles or 250 extra nautical miles? It's also important to remember that with all public releases surrounding the F-47, from its core configuration to metrics like these, we have to assume they have been carefully tailored as to not give too much away to adversary intelligence. Regardless, these are the official figures we now have in writing. The graphic also puts the F-47's speed at over Mach 2, which aligns with President Donald Trump's comments during the F-47 contract award announcement and naming presser. Exactly how fast it will be able to cruise without afterburner (supercruise) and at what level of efficiency is far more important than its top speed, regardless. Allvin's posting also states the F-47 program of record will include 185 aircraft, at least as it's planned at this time. This fits with years of statements from former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall as to how many NGAD manned jets the USAF would likely acquire. With what he laid out as an extreme price tag of upwards of three times more expensive than current fighters in production, around 200 would likely be built. It was also originally envisioned that the NGAD manned tactical jet would replace the F-22 directly. How accurate that remains today isn't clear as the F-22's out-of-service date has become more murky, as has its relation to being replaced with the F-47. But based on the 185 number, which matches the inventory of the F-22 in the same graphic, a direct replacement strategy seems to remain in play at least as a possibility. Still, based on recent USAF officials' statements, the F-47's final force structure design seems to remain a work in progress. The F-47 will feature 'Stealth ++' as opposed to the F-22's 'Stealth +' and the F-35's 'Stealth,' according to the graphic. This really isn't a new revelation, as the NGAD manned tactical jet was always envisioned as being a very low-observable aircraft, likely featuring all-aspect 'broadband,' all-aspect stealth against radar, and significantly reduced infrared signature. The inclusion of canards in the design, at least in the concept art we have been shown, seems somewhat antithetical to this goal. You can read more about this puzzling addition here. But, as we have said repeatedly since the first renderings of the F-47 were released, we don't know what has been included for counter-intelligence purposes, and we should always keep in mind that the actual aircraft may end up looking notably different — maybe even ending up without the canards. Finally, the USAF graphic states the F-47 would become operational between 2025 and 2029. This is very unlikely and this date range is probably meant to indicate the first flight of the F-47 and some of its developmental testing. We see the same date range for YQF-42A and/or YQF-44A CCAs. 'The F-47 will fly during this Administration,' a USAF official told TWZ when asked for further clarification. Move on to the aforementioned CCAs, the graphic shows CCA procurement as over 1,000 units. As we understand it, that would not necessarily be QF-42As or QF-44As, but across multiple CCA increments with one or both of those aircraft being procured in numbers between 100 and 150 units for the first CCA increment. Increment 2, which will likely be a very different airframe, is spinning up to be competed next. Still, the USAF could end up buying many more Increment 1 CCAs, beyond the 100-150 number, as the overall program evolves. The 700-mile combat radius for CCA is very important to note. We have not seen a range figure like this assigned to CCA before. Like the F-47's stated range, this is on the lower side of what some may think is necessary. This would be especially so as it does not align directly with what we now know about the F-47's own range. The F-47 will be one of the primary control platforms for CCAs. Keeping the crewed jets on station longer to control multiple waves of CCAs is always a possibility. And, once again, they are probably referring just to the two CCA designs currently being developed for testing. Follow-on CCA increments could have less or far more range. The range figure also fits with the indications we were seeing emerge in the program as it matured, with higher-performance and other attributes being emphasized over long-range. You can read our report on this here. As for speed, both the YQF-42A and YQF-44A are widely believed to be generally subsonic by design. Anduril's YQF-44A was adapted from Blue Force Technologies' Fury aggressor drone. That design was claimed to be capable of supersonic flight for limited maneuvers, but it is possible that more sustained supersonic operation could be acquired with propulsion changes. It isn't clear if such an enhancement was pursued in the final CCA design. Once again, follow-on CCAs could have less or more kinematic performance based on evolving requirements. Finally, the graphic notes stealth as an attribute for both types. Both aircraft have some low-observable (stealthy) features, to varying degrees, especially optimized from the critical forward aspects, but they are not very low-observable platforms. Still, some degree of stealth technology balanced against cost and performance will provide a degree of enhanced survivability. CCA stealth requirements could and probably will change drastically in future iterations. So there you have it, our first official specifications on these platforms from the U.S. Air Force. Although the metrics are very limited and generalized, and we should not read too much definitively into them, they give us a bit clearer idea of the design objectives of both the F-47 and Increment 1 CCAs. Contact the author: Tyler@
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Air-Launched ‘Fighter Drone' Collaborative Combat Aircraft Being Eyed By USAF
The U.S. Air Force is looking into the idea of air-launching Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones from other airplanes in addition to other ways of reducing dependence on traditional runways. Air-launched CCAs also fit in with the service's larger vision of CCAs having a disruptive impact on future aerial combat and presenting enemies with new challenges to address. At the same time, launching CCAs from mothership aircraft would present other operational challenges and limitations that would have to be overcome. Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel raised the possibility of procuring air-launched CCAs on May 8 during a virtual talk hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Kunkel is currently Director of Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming and Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force Futures at the Air Force's headquarters at the Pentagon. The Air Force's CCA program is being run in iterative development cycles. General Atomics and Anduril are currently developing what have now been designated as the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A as part of the program's first phase, Increment 1. Requirements for the follow-on Increment 2 are now in the latter stages of being finalized, and Kunkel has previously said his service may be leaning toward lower-cost and less complex designs for the second tranche. The Air Force has said it looking to acquire between 100 and 150 Increment 1 CCAs, and around 1,000 of the drones, at least, across all the future increments. 'As you look at how we generate combat power and the number of sites we can use, there's something to a shorter takeoff length, and there's something to vertical takeoff,' Kunkel said. 'We [have] got to figure out what that takes, because generally, when you do a vertical takeoff aircraft, you decrease the payload, you decrease the range. And so there's a balance that we need to strike here as we're thinking about how we generate combat power, how survivable it is, but then what the requirements are on the aircraft in terms of payload and range? But we're absolutely looking at that and what it takes.' 'We're also looking at, maybe we don't generate them [CCAs] from the ground at all,' he continued. 'Maybe we generate them by dropping them out of the aircraft. And so those are, those are all concepts we're looking at. But you're absolutely right. We don't necessarily want to be tied to air bases for our CCAs.' YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A are both designed to take off and land from traditional runways, but are already being engineered from the ground up to align with the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment (ACE) concepts of operations. ACE focuses heavily on the ability to deploy in irregular ways to a disaggregated array of operating locations, which include remote sites with limited infrastructure. This, in turn, helps upend enemy targeting cycles and reduces vulnerability. General Atomics has previously said the YFQ-42A incorporates specific design features that could help with operations from shorter and less well-maintained runways. The Fury design that serves as a base for Anduril's CCA, originally developed by Blue Force Technologies, also has features that allow for shorter field performance. TWZ regularly highlights how CCAs with complete runway independence, or at least independence from traditional airstrips, could be especially attractive additions in the context of the ACE construct. Beyond being less vulnerable to attacks that will stop their operations, runway-independent CCAs would be able to launch and/or recover from a much larger pool of potential operating locations, which could create even more uncertainty for opponents. Air Force officials have made clear that they expect to have to be able to fight while under attack during any future high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific. Based on prior discussions about expected range capabilities, at least for CCA Increment 1, airfields that would put the drones within direct reach of likely operating areas in the Indo-Pacific region would be especially vulnerable to enemy bombardment. 'We know that the adversary is going to try and target our bases,' Maj. Gen. Kunkel said last week in an obvious reference to China. 'For the last 30 years, they've developed a rocket force. They've developed cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, and all these things are meant to counter our bases, meant to keep us from reliably generating combat power from bases. One of the ways to thin out the adversary's mass is to put yourself in multiple locations.' So, 'the ability to achieve air superiority in the future is going to be more complex, and there's a couple things that we're going to need. We're going to need mass, and we're going to need some type of affordable mass that can counter our adversaries where they are. And so CCAs help us out with achieving affordable mass,' he continued. 'The other thing that CCAs do that some people often overlook is they increase complexity for the adversary.' 'As an air-to-air guy, you know that the easiest threat picture to counter is the 'Hey, diddle, diddle up the middle.'' Kunkel continued. With 'the ability to position CCAs and posture them in different places in a theater, you can increase the complexity of the picture that our adversaries see dramatically. And so that's another point that we've found, is increasing dilemmas for the adversary, increasing the complexity of the picture that they're going to see, increasing the complexity of what it takes for them to counter us.' Being able to air-launch at least some types of CCAs would only add to the complexities for a defender, who might suddenly find themselves facing a force that has multiplied substantially from what was originally seen on their sensors. Drones launched in mid-air could also approach a target area from multiple vectors at once or break off from the main group to head to a different adjacent operating area. Less survivable aircraft could also air-launch CCAs from rear areas and send them into higher-risk zones where more survivable aircraft like crewed stealth fighters could then take control. Air-launched CCAs could also offer valuable added on-station time for more localized missions like defending high-value, but more vulnerable assets, such as airborne early warning and control, tanker aircraft. These aircraft could even be launched on warning only when needed after a threat is detected. A very long-range and stealthy platform with a high payload capacity, like the forthcoming B-21 Raider bomber, might also be able to extend its reach even further by launching CCAs inside highly contested airspace. This could be for defense or offensive mission needs. The Air Force has separately been exploring how CCAs might pair with the B-21, in general. The Air Force also has a formal agreement with the Navy and the Marine Corps regarding the development of CCAs that includes a requirement for a common architecture that allows for seamless exchange of control during operations. 'So as we're charting our path, they're charting their path, and you'll see that we're going down the same road,' Kunkel said. 'What we really want to get ourselves to is this interconnectedness, and this being able to pull up to a CCA, whether it's an Air Force CCA or a Navy CCA, and being able to operate it.' 'As you look at CCAs, they're going to be up in the sky, and there's going to be opportunities to be controlled by multiple different aircraft,' he added. All of this still leaves open key questions about where and how air-launched CCAs might be recovered after missions, especially if bases closer to operating areas are deemed too high risk or if missions take the drones deep inside contested airspace. Any need to save range capacity to be able to recover at a location further away from hostile threats would trim back a drone's useful combat radius and limit on-station time after it arrives at its designated objective area. How those drones would be regenerated for other air-launched missions once recovered at remote locales is also another question that needs to be answered. Mid-air refueling capability is something that's been on the table for future CCAs, wherever they are launched and/or recovered from, and that could help extend the time on station and overall reach of CCAs. It could also open up better recovery options for air-launched and ground-launched variants alike. At the same time, this would add complexity to the drone's design and impact its cost. The U.S. military has also been struggling for years already to meet existing demands for tanker support, which would only grow in scale and complexity in any future high-end conflict. Finding aerial refueling options that can survive in more contested airspace presents its own challenges. Air-launched CCAs designed to be outright expendable or at least optionally recoverable might be another option, but one that would demand a very low-cost to have any chance of being operationally relevant. It is worth remembering here that the Navy has previously presented a vision for lower-cost CCAs that are 'consumable,' and that would be expended as one-way-attack munitions or training targets at the end of very short service lives that can include as few as a handful of missions. It's important to note that the idea of air-launching 'loyal wingman' type drones is not new, and is something the Air Force in particular has been experimenting with for years now. The Air Force has also been cooperating with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on the LongShot air-launched drone program, the stated goal of which is 'to disrupt the paradigm of air combat operations by demonstrating an unmanned air-launched vehicle capable of employing current air-to-air weapons, significantly increasing engagement range and mission effectiveness' of fighters or bombers. In other words, this is an air-to-air missile carrier of sorts. In 2023, DARPA chose General Atomics to continue developing its LongShot design – renderings of which are seen at the top of this story and below – with an eye toward a first flight before the end of that year. As of March 2024, the expected timetable for the drone's maiden flight had slipped to Fiscal Year 2025, which began last October, per Pentagon budget documents. Whether or not LongShot has flown now is unclear. How LongShot may now tie in to the Air Force's CCA program is unknown. The possibility of air-launched CCAs might also align with Maj. Gen. Kunkel last month about how the program's focus could be leaning toward lower-cost and less complex drones for Increment 2. As he mentioned last week, there are still questions about capability tradeoffs that could come with various kinds of runway-independent designs. Regardless, 'we want to provide dilemmas for the adversary that they weren't even thinking of. Everything needs to be a threat.' The future CCA force, which might include air-launched types, is a central part of that vision. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New high-tech Air Force Mission at Beale AFB
Washington, D.C.—Beale Air Force Base has been selected as the preferred location for the Air Force's new Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Aircraft Readiness Unit, announced Congressman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, a major step forward in securing the base's future role in next-generation defense technology. 'This is a major win for Beale AFB and a vote of confidence in the capabilities of our region,' LaMalfa said. 'These aircraft represent the future of the Air Force—autonomous, highly capable, and ready to deploy at a moment's notice. I worked closely with my colleagues in Congress, state and local leaders, and the Department of Defense to make the case for Beale. I want to thank President Trump, DOD leadership, and the Air Force for recognizing Beale's strategic importance and moving quickly to make it happen.' The selection of Beale Air Force Base won over competing sites in Nevada and North Dakota. Collaborative Combat Aircraft are part of the next generation of autonomous and fully integrated aircraft that will have broad multi-use capability from intelligence gathering to weapons deployment and much more, according to LaMalfa's office. The new technology and airframes are part of a fast-evolving modernization of the USAF. The Air Force is currently conducting ground tests of the aircraft, with flight testing expected later this year. LaMalfa, Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, represents California's First Congressional District, including Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama and Yuba counties.
