Air warfare
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall speaks with students and guests during the Senior Leader Orientation Course at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Nov. 13, 2023. (US Air Force photo by Eric Dietrich)
UPDATED 24/4/24 at 5:48 PM ET with details from an Air Force press release and comments from CCA suppliers.
WASHINGTON — Defense startup Anduril and drone manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) have been selected by the Air Force to build and test drone prototypes for the next phase of the service's Collaborative fighter aircraft program, the Air Force announced this evening.
The Air Force's decision whittles a pool of five competitors down to two. As a result, three other suppliers – Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – have been eliminated from the competition.
“Those companies not selected to build these production-representative CCA vehicles and conduct the flight test program will continue to be part of the broader industry partner pool of more than 20 companies to compete for future endeavors, including future production contracts,” the Air Force said.
Like Breaking Defense first reported, the five contractors were previously selected by the Air Force for the program's first phase, which focused heavily on design work. Today's selection narrows down the vendors who will take their designs from the drawing board to the real world. As Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter recently told lawmakers in a congressional hearing, the upcoming CCA phase will see these suppliers “complete detailed designs, build prototypes and test production-representative test items.”
Unveiled by the service as a major multibillion-dollar program in the fiscal year 2024 budget, the CCA effort initially aims to as many as 1,000 drones. According to the service's press release today, officials plan to make a “competitive production decision” by FY26 for the first round of CCA work and “establish a fully operational capability by the end of the decade.”
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At the Air & Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in February, Kendall revealed that the ongoing CCA competition right now would be the program's first “increment,” with another to follow in the FY25 budget. The other increase would provide suppliers eliminated today, as well as Newanother shot at a CCA contract. International cooperation could also be included in the second surge, Kendall said, and the service's release today indicated that foreign military sales could be on the table for the program.
During the February roundtable, Kendall further revealed the “possibility” that more than one supplier could see their drone bids come into use for the first stage. He also brought up the chance to take up to three suppliers through the previous testing phase if industry helped share some of the costs.
With only two vendors making the cut today, it's unclear if that idea came to fruition. Asked recently if the industry was convinced to pick up some of the tab, Hunter told reporters that “cost sharing is not at the heart of our approach to CCA.”
The service's press release today said the downselection decision “does not preclude any of the vendors from competing for the future Increment 1 production contract” — likely suggesting companies would have to use internal funds to move their designs forward and compete for a possible production part.
Which companies launched and what's coming next
When it comes to specific designs, GA-ASI has listed that the company's Gambit drone family would be its entry, while Anduril's acquisition last year by autonomous aircraft supplier Blue Force positioned the Fury drone as Anduril's bid. In pictures today announcing the company's victory, Anduril showed off the Fury drone, appearing to confirm the drone was the company's bid.
“There is no time to waste on business as usual. With the CCA program, Secretary Kendall and the Air Force have embraced a fast-moving, forward-thinking approach to field autonomous systems at speed and scale,” Anduril CEO and co-founder Brian Schimpf said in a statement. are honored to be selected for this unprecedented opportunity, which signals a call for continued expansion of the defense industrial base. Anduril is proud to pave the way for other non-traditional defense companies to compete and deliver on major programs.”
“Throughout our 30-year history, GA-ASI has been at the forefront of rapidly advancing unmanned aircraft systems that support our warfighters,” GA-ASI President David Alexander said in a statement. “The USAF is moving forward with GA-ASI because of our focused commitment to unmanned air-to-air combat operations and unmatched UAS experience that ensures production of the CCA aircraft at scale to deliver affordable combat mass to the warfighter.”
Boeing said in a statement today that the aerospace giant was offering a “proprietary solution tailored to the US Air Force's unique CCA Phase 1 requirements,” and was not pitching the MQ-25 Stingray or the MQ-28 Ghost Bat.
“While we are disappointed that we are not moving forward in this phase of the Air Force's CCA program, we are undeterred in our commitment to deliver next-generation autonomous combat aircraft to US and global military customers. Work continues on our robust and growing autonomous family , including the MQ-25 Stingray and future derivatives, the MQ-28 Ghost Bat and a number of proprietary programs we cannot disclose,” Boeing said.
Lockheed and Northrop have also not confirmed which candidates they are fielding.
In a statement, Lockheed said the company “remains committed to advancing the state-of-the-art in autonomous systems for air and ground missions. Our work to develop and integrate pathfinding open architectures, ground control systems such as the Multi-Domain Combat System™, human factors interfaces and mission systems continues. For some time, we have been focused on bringing the transformative power of autonomous and AI/ML-enabled operations to life in manned and unmanned DoD systems, with a particular focus on integrating CCA with the F-35 and F-22.These commitments and this work are on it.”
A representative for Northrop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Another parallel effort under the CCA is also known to be working on the drones' autonomous software, though it's unclear which companies are involved. Hunter said last year the service already had 20 to 30 vendors working on that element of the CCA work, and said as recently as February that the autonomy part would continue regardless of progress on the hardware side.
