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13-05-2025
- Business
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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
09-05-2025
- Business
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USAF Wants Collaborative Aircraft Fleet To Stress Parts Commonality For Forward Operations
The U.S. Air Force will have to prioritize the sustainability of its new Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones if it's to ensure they are an effective 'additive' to the force. This is the conclusion of Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel, Director of Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force Futures, who also called for a significant degree of shared components between the first increment of CCA drones, which comprises the General Atomics YFQ-42A and the Anduril YFQ-44A. The topic of maintenance, logistics, and sustainment of CCAs, including a heavier focus on commercial-off-the-shelf components, is something we have addressed in the past. Maj. Gen. Kunkel was speaking as a guest at the rollout of the Mitchell Institute's latest research study, authored by Air Force Col. Mark A. Gunzinger (ret.), Director of Future Concepts and Capability Assessments. Based on a series of wargames, the study looks at the logistics requirements for Air Force CCAs in combat scenarios. Ultimately, Kunkel said, the CCAs will only be of real value as combat mass as long as they can be kept flying at high rates, either alongside crewed fighters or flying missions alone. In this way, the adversary will be forced to respond to their presence, generating sorties and expending weapons in their effort to counter them. While that is one of the main reasons behind developing the CCAs in the first place, it does impose a significant logistics burden, Kunkel observed. Even without the demands of making its CCAs suitable for distributed operations, these drones will come with a significant logistics burden, simply due to their number. The service expects to buy between 100 and 150 Increment 1 CCAs, but has said in the past that it could ultimately acquire at least a thousand of the drones across all of the program's increments. The goal, according to Kunkel, is to have CCAs that are able to operate for hundreds of hours without needing significant maintenance work. This becomes especially important when operating from forward locations, as is the expectation of future conflicts, notably in the Pacific theater. The drones are being designed from the outset to make them suitable for concepts of distributed and disaggregated operations, something also referred to as Agile Combat Employment (ACE). Kunkel highlighted the relevance of this concept to the new drones: '[With] an ability to position CCAs and posture them in different places in a theater, you can increase the complexity of the picture that our adversary sees dramatically … 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.' In the past, Kunkel has described the Air Force CCAs as 'the first aircraft that we have developed specifically for ACE.' Reflecting these concerns, Kunkel said he has already had talks with General Atomics and Anduril, with a view to reducing the number of different components in the company's CCA designs. This would also seem to indicate that the Air Force currently plans to buy a mix of YF-42As and YF-44As, under Increment 1, although that could still change. Kunkel noted that he has encouraged those firms to explore 'motors that are the same, controls that are the same, actuators, tires … those types of things that we need,' to make it easier to sustain CCAs once deployed. 'They don't necessarily have to be the same aircraft, but certainly many of the components need to be the same,' Kunkel added. Meanwhile, the increased use of 'condition-based maintenance' should help reduce the maintenance demands involved in CCA operations by alerting ground crews early to any looming issues. Already, we have explored the Air Force's ambition for its CCAs to make greater use of commercial-off-the-shelf components than the service's existing crewed and uncrewed platforms. On the other hand, Gunzinger proposed a somewhat different approach to dealing with maintenance issues, namely by fielding more expendable CCAs, with the idea of less-exquisite and cheaper drones in future increments gaining some traction recently. 'CCAs do not need to be anywhere near as reliable or have as large a mean time between failure as crewed aircraft,' Gunzinger contended. 'If it's a recoverable CCA that might fly 10, 15, or 20 sorties, there are still lower costs.' Gunzinger raised the scenario of some kind of mechanical failure keeping a CCA on the ground in the middle of the fight. 'We can push it off the side of the runway … because we don't have time, we don't have resources to get around and repair that CCA on the ground, increasing the time our airmen are on the ground, and possibly vulnerable.' For Kunkel, another important reason for ensuring as much subsystem commonality as possible is the sheer number of different CCA drone variants that are currently planned. According to Col. Gunzinger, the wargames involved 16 different variants, reflecting the wide spectrum of missions the CCAs are expected to undertake. While the Increment 1 CCAs are expected to work closely together with crewed combat jets primarily in the air-to-air combat role, at least initially, they will also be used as electronic warfare platforms and sensor nodes, further augmenting crewed platforms. There is also significant potential for the drones to fulfill roles additional to these: intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions have also been discussed. Another mission that was included in the recent wargames was logistic support, in which the CCAs would move ammunition and supplies around different forward operating locations. This reflects Air Force experiments involving MQ-9 Reaper drones, deployed in small packages to forward locations under the Rapid Reaper concept. For the MQ-9, General Atomics helped develop a 'kit' to assist with deploying and sustaining those drones within the ACE construct. Future CCAs, like the Reapers, could be adapted to carry small cargoes in travel pods under their wings, or in internal payload bays. With so many different versions of the CCA likely to be fielded, the Air Force will need to avoid having different sets of logistics trains to support them. In particular, weapons, refueling equipment, other ground equipment, and loading equipment should be common for CCAs, as far as is possible, Gunzinger said. Even with existing crewed aircraft, the demands of specialized maintenance and logistics, as well as the need for more bespoke equipment on the ground to support flight operations, have been significant challenges for the Air Force when it comes to implementing the ACE concepts. When it comes to optimizing the CCAs for combat operations from forward locations, Kunkel pointed to the utility of drones that can operate free from the constraints of traditional airbases, including being fully independent of runways. 'We know that the adversary is going to try and target our bases,' Kunkel added, 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.' Putting CCAs at forward locations is 'one of the ways to thin out the adversary's mass … and the logistics pipeline of CCA is less complex' than for crewed aircraft. Compared with a traditional combat aircraft that likely requires complex logistical pipelines, long runways, and extensive infrastructure, all of which are vulnerable, CCAs are 'being specifically built so you can put them in a lot of different places. And if you can put them in a lot of different places, you can create a tremendous ground picture that an adversary has to attack if they're going to be successful. Increasing the number of ground targets for an adversary, I think, is just as important as increasing the number of air targets.' Kunkel noted that for certain roles, CCAs would need a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) capability, but that short or vertical takeoff 'is something that we need to look at' in future CCA 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,' Kunkel said. 'We've got to figure out what that takes because, generally, when you do a vertical takeoff aircraft, you decrease the payload, you decrease the range. There's a balance that we need to strike here.' In addition to potential STOL and VTOL capabilities for future CCA increments, Kunkel also suggested that some of these drones could potentially be launched from other aircraft. Clearly, the Air Force is very much still in the process of working out how best to utilize its CCAs and what kinds of missions they should be used for. It's also notable that the promise of these drones to augment crewed combat aircraft, making them more lethal and flexible in the process, is also tempered by the potentially challenging logistics requirements that will come with them. These challenges will become greater the more different mission sets are taken on and as the different increments and versions of the drone diversify. It will therefore be critical to strike a balance between fielding CCAs with a range of capabilities and meeting the requirements of operating from forward locations with limited support. Contact the author: thomas@
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24-04-2025
- Business
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Air Force's Next Batch Of Collaborative Combat Drones Could Be Less ‘Exquisite,' Cheaper
We now have more clarity on the U.S. Air Force's plans for its second tranche of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, known as Increment 2. This includes the likelihood that each CCA Increment 2 drone will cost less than was previously expected, as well as the increasing likelihood of its integration with assets in addition to fighters, including the B-21 stealth bomber and E-7 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft. The information was provided by Maj. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel, Director of Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming, Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force Futures. Kunkel was speaking today at the Warfighters in Action virtual Q&A organized by the Air and Space Forces Association. Kunkel confirmed that the Air Force is currently looking more deeply at the requirements for CCA Increment 2, noting that this contrasts with its approach to Increment 1, which focused on rapidly bringing a capability into service. The Air Force expects to buy between 100 and 150 Increment 1 CCAs, but has said in the past that it could ultimately acquire at least a thousand of CCA drones across all of the program's increments. The service's stated initial focus is on acquiring CCAs that can act as weapons 'trucks,' electronic warfare platforms, and sensor nodes, to augment crewed tactical combat jets, but there is also significant potential for drones that can fulfill roles additional to these. 'What we wanted to do with CCA Increment 1 was speed the field,' Kunkel said. 'How quickly can we field this? And so we've got a capability that's going to field very quickly. We're flying the first things this summer, which is absolutely incredible from a timeline perspective, as we continue to do analysis.' The Air Force has chosen to build two different drones for CCA Increment 1, which are being developed by General Atomics and Anduril as the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively. These are the U.S. military's first-ever 'fighter drone' designations. The Increment 1 CCAs are expected to work closely together with crewed combat jets, primarily in the air-to-air combat role, at least initially. Kunkel added that some of the analysis that's now helping frame CCA Increment 2 requirements emerged from the Air Force's studies for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) 'fighter' initiative. The centerpiece of the NGAD effort is a new crewed sixth-generation stealth combat jet, the Boeing F-47, which the Air Force hopes to begin fielding in the next decade. Based on these findings, 'We're looking at a range of CCAs,' Kunkel continued. 'I know that as Secretary Kendall left, he said, 'Hey, it's going to be more expensive and it's going to be more exquisite.' Well, it might be, but we're also seeing that there's going to be room for other capabilities that aren't as exquisite.' Kunkel was referencing the words of former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, who suggested that the Increment 2 drones could be between 20 to 30 percent more expensive per airframe than those in the first batch. Kendall had previously said that the goal was for the price point for Increment 1 CCAs to be between one-quarter and one-third of that of an F-35. This would put the price tag of a single one of those drones at between $20.5 and $27.5 million, based on publicly available cost data. An increase of 20-30 percent in those figures would put the price range for Increment 2 CCAs at between approximately $24.6/$26.65 and $33/35.75 million. At the same time, Kendall did say he doesn't believe the Increment 2 CCAs should evolve into high-end exquisite platforms. This came amid serious questions about the Air Force's ability to afford its next round of CCAs, as well as other future advanced aircraft, including new sixth-generation crewed combat jets and stealthy tankers. 'I think, personally, something that has some increase in cost over Increment 1 would not be outrageous,' Kendall told Air & Space Forces Magazine earlier this year, '20 or 30 percent, something like that.' Kunkel went further on that theme, noting that the Increment 2 drones — or at least some of them — will very likely be cheaper, to 'provide mass.' 'This whole CCA thing started a long time ago,' Kunkel reflected. 'You had a bunch of baby F-22 drivers sitting around the bar at Elmendorf going, 'Man, I ran out of missiles five minutes into the fight. If only I had this loyal wingman that wouldn't talk back to me but would also be able to just shoot some missiles,' and we dreamed about this loyal wingman. We didn't call it CCA back then, but we're now getting to the point where we're realizing it.' As to what Increment 2 might look like, Kunkel said he expects to see 'a range of options from low-end to potentially more exquisite. I tend to think that it's probably going to be closer to this low-end thing.' We already know the Air Force is working to acquire what could ultimately be a fleet of multiple different types of CCA drones through iterative development cycles. Already, dozens of contractors are also working on other aspects of the program, including advanced autonomous technologies. When the Air Force starts to look at further CCA increments, Kunkel stated that the service will have to examine how it can best generate combat power. Although 'generation of combat power from bases is important, there might be other ways to generate this combat power that don't rely on bases,' Kunkel said. 'So that might be something that we might be looking at as we start looking at future increments of CCA. That is a big portion of it. We're not just looking at how it fights in the air. We're looking at how we generate combat power as well.' Kunkel's words suggest that the Air Force will be looking at options to launch and recover CCA drones of future increments that don't rely on traditional, vulnerable runways and expensive related infrastructure. On the one hand, this could involve drones launched from a rail or catapult, but it might also include scope for drones that can be launched from other aircraft. In the past, TWZ has highlighted in the past the value of CCAs able to operate from shorter and/or less improved runways, and the benefits would only increase if they were to be made entirely runway independent, which would also allow them to be more flexibly positioned in forward areas. Kunkel also provided some insight into how the CCAs (Increments 1, 2, and potentially beyond) will be operated in conjunction with crewed Air Force assets, confirming that the service is looking at integrating the drones with a range of platforms.'The F-47 is going to be one of those platforms,' Kunkel said. 'What CCA does in the fight is twofold. One, it provides affordable mass. But the other thing it does is complicate the picture for an adversary. And you know, as an air-to-air guy, we all know that the easiest picture is this single-axis, single-azimuth picture of the fight. Everyone's coming right at you, and it's like, 'Okay, hey, diddle diddle, up the middle, we can take this on.' What's more complex and harder to fight is this multi-axis dense-threat environment, and with CCA, we have the opportunity to do that. So CCA integration with F-47 makes the F-47 better.' As well as a loyal wingman to the F-47, CCA drones will be integrated with the F-35 and F-22 stealth fighters, Kunkel said. Furthermore, 'I would suggest potentially in the future, B-21 and E-7, and maybe just CCA on its own.' All of these different options 'complicate the adversary picture [and] put us in a better position where it makes the fight better for all of us. So yeah, CCA integration with a number of platforms is something that we're looking at.' Back in 2023, Lt. Gen. James Slife, the Air Force's Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, had also raised the idea of CCAs operating alongside B-21s, as well as aerial refueling tankers and cargo aircraft. Meanwhile, the potential of CCAs to assist the E-7 is something that has been discussed for some time, with General Atomics, in particular, having pitched CCA-like drones in an asset-protection role for AEW&C platforms, tankers, and other critical and more vulnerable aircraft. At this stage, there are still many unknowns surrounding CCA Increment 2, although it's clear that requirements are taking shape. With the potential for CCAs to complement crewed platforms beyond fighters, and with what looks likely to be an emphasis on low cost and combat mass, it's also likely that the Air Force's future CCA fleet could grow significantly larger and include multiple different designs. That is, if all goes to plan. For all its undoubted potential, the CCA effort still has plenty to prove, and this is a concept very much in its infancy. Whether the Air Force's CCA ambitions will pan out as Kunkel or other officials envisage them remains to be seen. Contact the author: thomas@
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
F-47 6th Generation Fighter Future Force Size Questions Emerge
The U.S. Air Force is firmly of the view that its new F-47 6th generation stealth fighters are key to 'how we win' in future fights, according to the service's top general in charge of force structure planning. Though the Air Force previously said it would buy 200 of the next-generation combat jets, how many of the aircraft the service now plans to acquire is an open question as its vision of the core air superiority mission set continues to evolve. Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel talked about the F-47 and how it factors into his service's current work on a new over-arching force design during a virtual talk that the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) hosted today. Kunkel is currently the director of Force Design, Integration, and Wargaming within the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Air Force Futures at the Pentagon. Kunkel described the announcement in March that Boeing's F-47 had won the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) combat jet competition as 'a fantastic day for the Air Force' that has 'assured air superiority for generations to come.' The Air Force had put the NGAD combat jet program on hold for a deep review last year, which ultimately concluded that the service needed to acquire the aircraft to be best positioned to achieve air superiority in future high-end fights. 'The F-47, the capabilities that it brings to the fight, are game-changing for us,' he continued. 'It doesn't change the character the fight just for the Air Force, it changes it for the joint force. It allows us to get places – allows the joint force to get places where it otherwise couldn't. It allows us to move closer to the adversary [and] allows us to counter the adversary in ways we can't [now].' Kunkel said that he could not provide any more granular information about the F-47's design and capabilities due to the high degree of classification currently surrounding the program. Air & Space Forces Magazine reported last week that the F-47 concept art that the Air Force has released to date has been heavily manipulated to obscure key details about the actual aircraft. You can find TWZ's previous in-depth analysis of what has been shown so far here. 'The F-47, I think, is a perfect example of a war-winning story, a coherent narrative, [a] cohesive 'hey, this is how we win,'' Maj. Gen. Kunkel added today. 'This is how the joint force wins.' There are still questions about how exactly the F-47 will fit into the Air Force's future force structure and how many of the jets the service might actually purchase. 'We won't be able to get to F-47 force structure numbers in this conversation,' Kunkel said today in direct response to a question from the author. 'It does point to a larger question of, we've got a force design, how do you transition that force design into force structure, and then is there a force-sizing construct that needs to accompany it? And that larger force-sizing structure or concept is something we're working on right now.' During a quarterly earnings call yesterday, Boeing's CEO Kelly Ortberg also said he could not offer any details about the current F-47 contract beyond what the Air Force has already announced. In 2023, then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said that his service was working around a future force planning construct that included 200 NGAD combat jets. That aligned with the original vision for what was first referred to as the Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA) platform, which was intended as more or less a one-for-one replacement for the existing F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. In July 2024, Air Force Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command (ACC), said that there was no longer a firm timeline for replacing the F-22 at all, and it is unclear how those plans may have further changed since then. Significant F-22 modernization projects are underway now, which have also been feeding into the larger NGAD initiative. These questions are directly tied to the Air Force's still-evolving vision of what achieving air superiority – the primary expected mission of the F-47 – will look like in future conflicts. 'I was part of the group that did the [NGAD combat jet] analysis, and said, 'hey, is there a different way to do this? Can we do this with the current capabilities?'' Maj. Gen. Kunkel said today. 'I guess we probably didn't need to do the analysis, because what we found is we found out that we were right, that air superiority, in fact, does matter.' At the same time, 'there's an evolution in how we do air superiority, right?' Kunkel added. 'All domains is [sic] enabled by air superiority. So the Air Force must continue to provide it.' 'But there might be places where air superiority, it doesn't turn into air supremacy. And on this scale, it goes from 'blue' or U.S. air supremacy, and goes down to your superiority, and then goes down to neutral, and then 'red' is on the other side,' he continued. 'There's probably places where there's mutual air denial. Where no one's no one has air superiority, but we're denying the air domain to the adversary. And I think, in some of these cases, that may be perfectly acceptable, where we don't have this dominant presence all the time.' This is in line with a concept of 'pulsed airpower' operations the Air Force has outlined in the past, defined as a 'concentrating of airpower in time and space to create windows of opportunity for the rest of the force.' 'Now, is that your superiority? I don't know. I tend to think it is, but it may not be,' Kunkel further noted today. The video below offers a view of how the Air Force has described the air superiority mission in the past. As already noted, the air superiority mission set was absolutely central to the development of the NGAD combat jet requirements that led to the F-47. Kunkel himself highlighted just earlier this year how critical the jets are expected to be in providing a forward airpower presence, especially in heavily contested environments. 'You've got to be forward in order to sustain the tempo that's required to bring the adversary to a sneeze. So an all-long-range force, … it sounds wonderful, doesn't it? You sit in Topeka, Kansas, you press a red button, the war gets fought. Nobody gets hurt. It's all done at long range,' Kunkel said during a talk at the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., in February. '[But] it doesn't win because it just can't sustain the tempo of the fight.' The service has also previously made clear in the past that plans for the NGAD combat jet, as well as its future fleets of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones and next-generation aerial refueling capabilities, are all directly intertwined. The Air Force is still very much refining its vision for how it will employ CCAs and is similarly ironing out requirements for future aerial refueling capabilities. The forward drone controller role is still expected to be another key task for the F-47. 'CCA integration with F-47 makes the F-47 better,' Kunkel said today. Boeing E7 #Wedgetail, Future Fighter & MQ28 Collaborative Combat Aircraft #CCA teaming.. ( Boeing) — AirPower 2.0 (MIL_STD) (@AirPowerNEW1) April 20, 2025 Budgetary considerations will have an impact on the ultimate F-47 force structure, as well. Just completing the jet's development is expected to cost at least $20 billion on top of what has already been spent. The aircraft's estimated unit cost is unclear, but has been pegged in the past at three times the average price of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, or upwards of $300 million based on publicly available information. Separately this week, Lockheed Martin, which lost the NGAD combat jet competition to Boeing, also pitched the idea of a major 'NASCAR upgrade' for the F-35 that could 'deliver 80% of 6th gen capability at 50% of the cost,' according to the company's CEO Jim Taiclet. Kunkel said today he had not heard about this ambitious proposal, but would be interested in talking with Lockheed Martin about it. Regardless, a major realignment of priorities is currently underway across the entire U.S. military under President Donald Trump. Despite expectations that some existing programs will be cut, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said the total U.S. defense budget request is set to rise to around $1 trillion. Maj. Gen. Kunkel and other Air Force officials have been and continue to be bullish on their service coming out ahead in the end budget-wise. 'So, when you say balance out the budget, what we can't do as a nation is say that the Air Force needs to balance out its budget,' Kunkel said today. 'The Department [of Defense] needs to balance its budget, and the resources need to follow the strategy. … If the strategy has changed – which I would argue that the strategy for the last 30 years is not the strategy for the future – if the strategy has changed, then the resources need to follow the strategy. Here's the truth. The truth is that future fights depend on the Air Force to a greater extent than they ever have.' There are still concerns about what tradeoffs the Air Force may need to make in order to afford its F-47 plans on top of other expensive top-tier priorities, including the future LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile and the forthcoming B-21 Raider stealth bomber. There has notably been renewed talk in recent months about increasing planned B-21 purchases. 'When I left the Pentagon, the Department of the Air Force had a list of unfunded strategic priorities that were higher priority than NGAD. At the top of the list were counter-space weapons and airbase defense,' former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall wrote in an op-ed for Defense News earlier this month. 'Our new F-47s – and all of our forward-based aircraft – will never get off the ground if we don't address these threats through substantial budget increases.' Kendall had already disclosed that he had been willing to trade the NGAD combat jet for new investments in counter-space capabilities and improved base defenses during an episode of Defense & Aerospace Report's Air Power Podcast put out in March. During the podcast, Kendall, together with former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Andrew Hunter, provided a slew of other new details about the F-47 and its origins, as you can read more about here. Overall, the Air Force's current leadership is clearly very committed to the F-47, but how the service expects to eventually weave the jets into its future force structure plans looks to be still evolving. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
YouTuber brands Albuquerque's International District 'most frightful neighborhood in America'
A YouTuber with a penchant for drama and more than 1.1 million subscribers recently toured Albuquerque's International District, and the end result was less than flattering. "Oh God," Nick Johnson says in the opening lines of a nearly 54-minute video of an area that has long been known as the "War Zone" and more recently as "Zombie Land" due to the large number of drug users who can be seen hunched over in eerie positions on a daily basis after smoking fentanyl. "Oh my God. Oh my God," Johnson says in the video, which has garnered more than 186,000 views in less than two days, as he records people loitering along a trash-filled Indiana Street off Central Avenue. "This is hoppin'." Johnson, a conservative who on his "Unboxing America" YouTube page touts taking "captivating journeys across America, weaving tales of culture, lifestyle, and exploration," did not answer a series of questions submitted by The New Mexican via email Thursday, including whether he was exploiting people down on their luck for profit. But in a statement, Johnson issued a warning. "You can't save any of the people I witnessed on the streets of Albuquerque that day," he said. "But, hopefully every kid growing up in New Mexico watches this video and it scares them into never wanting to live their lives like that. This video should be required viewing for high school kids in your state." Inside New Mexico's 'War Zone' - The Most Frightful Neighborhood In America A spokesperson for Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement such videos have little purpose. "Videos by out-of-state influences that exploit people in crisis for likes offer no real solutions to the complex, national challenges we're facing with addiction and homelessness," Shannon Kunkel said. "This area of town, home predominantly to people of color, has faced long-standing challenges dating back to the early '80s." Kunkel said Keller, who is serving his second term in office, "continues to reverse decades of historic underinvestment in the International District," including by providing wraparound services for the homeless, hundreds of new housing units, more crime fighting technology and targeted crime operations, as well as new streetlights and pedestrian safety improvements. "What is critical for the area now is stopping [President Donald] Trump's cuts to crime prevention, housing, and social services, and we will continue to fight for the resources needed to get people help and clean up criminal activity," Kunkel said. Johnson branded New Mexico's so-called War Zone "the most frightful neighborhood in America." "This is super bad," he says at one point in the video. "I don't think I've seen this bad since Austin, Texas, but this feel sketchier and more widespread." Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart, an Albuquerque Democrat whose district includes the neighborhood, said Johnson is "making a lot of assumptions" that aren't based on fact. "The implication is, 'Oh, this is a horrible place with murder and mayhem and crime,' and what you see is people milling about on the street in the middle of the night," she said. "Yes, we have crime in this area. Yes, we have a homeless population issue. But it's not like they're all killing each other and creating all this crime," she said. "They are homeless, and they are parked near or by Central [Avenue] in part because that's where there are businesses, where they can buy food and water. So yeah, it's an issue, and we're working on it." But Sen. Nicole Tobiassen, an Albuquerque Republican, said the video reflects reality based on her firsthand experience. "There was someone that we knew that got an apartment a few years ago in that district, and we went to help them move," she recalled. "When we got there, I was like, 'What?' I was petrified. I'm like, 'I can't believe that you're going to live here.' There were, in the middle of the day, drugged-out people walking in the middle of the street, like where cars should be, walking in the middle of the street with shopping carts. There were people urinating and defecating in the street. That was a few years ago, and it's worse now." The YouTube video shows homeless encampments, graffiti-covered walls, garbage in the streets and people milling about. At one point in the video, Johnson records a shirtless and incoherent man moaning and groaning on his hands and knees on a sidewalk. "This guy is just totally wigging out on the side of the road," he says in the video. "That was about the most tragic thing I think I have seen up close, and I've seen a lot." Johnson later remarks Albuquerque is at the "center for the drug trade" because it's where Interstates 25 and 40 intersect. "That's part of the problem," he says. "They come here and cut the drug[s], split it up, bag it up and then distribute it off to the rest of the country." Stewart noted the Legislature passed a bill to create a tax increment development district designed to support the redevelopment of the state fairgrounds in Albuquerque and inject the surrounding areas, particularly the International District, with an economic jolt of energy. "The master plan is still in the works," she said. "It's still out with [a request for proposals], so we don't know what the options will be yet. But we have a group of primarily elected officials from this area that are tasked with trying to change the trajectory of this part of the city." When Stewart presented Senate Bill 481 on the Senate floor, she said the measure would provide an opportunity for the state to undertake a "Marshall Plan" to reinvigorate and save the neighborhoods around the state-owned and operated fairgrounds. "That area is now the state epicenter for crime, pedestrian fatalities, cartel activity, human trafficking, drugs, crime, tent cities," she told her colleagues. "It's gotten quite bad." Stewart also pitched the measure as an effort to address the "horrific challenges" in the middle of Albuquerque. "It's all there in my district," she said. "It's very embarrassing." At the same meeting, Tobiassen said she only visits the area while accompanied by her husband or one of her two sons, who she said look like linebackers. "It's hell on earth there," she said on the Senate floor. In Thursday's interview, Stewart touted positive developments of the district, from a "phenomenal food program" run out of a local elementary school to active community involvement to try to improve living conditions. Stewart said she lives right outside the boundaries of the International District and drives through it regularly. "I am not afraid to walk through it and meet my community members there, so I do think it's getting a bad rap," she said. "There definitely are issues we are all working on, but you know, in a way, it's no worse than any other area of Albuquerque." Tobiassen said she applauded Stewart for bringing forward "a potentially viable option" to revitalize the area. She said the neighborhood is ultimately under the jurisdiction of Keller, a Democrat. "The fact that it's just allowed to continue is a tragedy," she said. Stewart pushed back on some of the scenes in the video, including what appears to be a man holding a machete to the neck of another person on the ground. "Are there issues? Yes. Are there issues all over Albuquerque? Yes," she said. "You can go anywhere in Albuquerque and find homeless. Everybody picks on us, and we resent it."
