Published 17:06 IST, February 14th 2024
US Air Force Plans to Award Contracts to 3 Vendors for Loyal Wingman Aircraft Program
The USAF Secretary, shared the plan for awarding CCA contracts during a roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium.
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Washington: The United States Air Force is edging closer to selecting the companies that will build the first batch of collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), or Loyal Wingman, according to initial reports. These drones, equipped with autonomous software, will operate alongside manned fighters in battle.
The goal of the USAF is to choose two or three companies from the current five – Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, and Anduril – for the next phase of development, with contracts expected in fiscal year 2025, as per a prior RTX press release.
Choosing Strategic Development Partners
Frank Kendall, the US Air Force Secretary, shared this plan during a roundtable at the Air and Space Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium. He during an address spoke about the potential involvement of key international partners in this phase of development. "This next round of CCA development could also involve participation by the United States’ closest and ‘most strategic’ international partners,” he said.
Mission-Tailored Loyal Wingman Prototypes
According to media reports, the USAF is anticipating various types of CCAs, each tailored for different missions such as strikes, surveillance, jamming, and decoy operations. Kendall, in his address, added about the ‘urgency’ of the program, with initial contracts covering concept definition and preliminary design work.
Andrew Hunter, the US Air Force's Assistant Secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics, also added that there is already close collaboration with Air Combat Command to determine the operational requirements of these aircraft for USAD. “The Air Force received a great deal of feedback from industry about how they could meet the service’s loose goal of fielding about 1,000 CCAs,” Hunter said.
Companies not selected for the first phase will have another opportunity in the subsequent phase, reports add. Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, for example, said it is still interested in the US government program’s Phase 2 despite not making the initial cut. Fendley said, ‘We’re in the mix,’ underlining the importance of offering a diverse array of capabilities and cost-effective solutions to meet the US Air Force's various mission requirements and challenges.
Future Production and Collaboration for Loyal Wingman
While much attention has focused on the physical drone aspect, Hunter also spoke about how important and vital the role of contractors working on software and other critical elements is. Developing autonomous capabilities remains a key challenge, Hunter added, and said there are ongoing efforts to enhance autonomy beyond the initial phase.
"That work will continue apart from the individual increments to develop the CCA air vehicles, and developing that kind of ‘foundational architecture' for CCAs is one potential area on which the Air Force can work with international partners,” Hunter added.
The United States Air Force aims to move CCAs into production after completing the initial phases of development, according to Hunter. Further down-selecting of contractors will occur in the coming years, with the possibility of multiple firms contributing to the initial production batch.
17:06 IST, February 14th 2024