USAF Pushes CCA Drones for Bare Airfield Operations
The US Air Force is accelerating its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, designing low-cost, rugged drones that can operate from austere sites with minimal support to enhance its Agile Combat Employment doctrine.
The US Air Force is pushing to rapidly field its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones as low-cost support vehicles for crewed fighters like the F-35. A core requirement is that these 'Loyal Wingman' drones be deployable from bare airfields with minimal ground support. The drones are designed to be expendable, costing roughly one-third as much as an F-35, which will allow large numbers to be deployed. Building independence from conventional airfield facilities will let the USAF set up a network of small, dispersed units at remote locations.
It remains unclear if the final two contenders will be fully runway-independent. However, the General Atomics FQ-42A Dark Merlin and Anduril FQ-44A Fury will need little more than a flat strip of earth and a data-link connection to operate.
The CCA program is one of the fastest-moving defense projects. The Air Force aims to amass a vast armada of 1,000 or more Loyal Wingman drones. Given the program's brief history, simply taking prototypes to different operating environments provides valuable learning. Human-machine teaming tactics and doctrine are also in early development.
In late July, the USAF conducted its first major test outside a sterile environment with both the Dark Merlin and Fury drones at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. The service declared it a resounding success. The trials generated multiple sorties and demonstrated extended range and reliability while integrating with crewed platforms.
Minimizing ground support requirements is a primary focus. On August 13, the US Air Force announced it successfully completed prototype evaluations of the Portable Command and Control Enclave (C2E), which can control CCAs from austere sites.
The real-world testing at Creech was preceded by the first live-fire demonstrations in the CCA program's history at Edwards AFB in California. Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall expects the CCAs to make their debut at this year's annual Red Flag exercise. He speculates that introducing the Loyal Wingman drones could produce fascinating results, based on battle simulations showing a high victory rate for forces using CCAs alongside crewed aircraft. The introduction of CCAs into Red Flag represents a paradigm shift, transitioning human-machine teaming into a scalable, high-end warfighting reality.
