The Collaborative Combat Aircraft program is the United States Air Force’s attempt to multiply the effectiveness of every sixth-generation fighter by surrounding it with cheap, expendable unmanned partners. After years of concept work under names like Skyborg and Loyal Wingman, CCA has now moved firmly into procurement, with contracts awarded, prototypes flying, and the first operational increments planned for the late 2020s.
If the program delivers as promised, the future American fighter formation will look nothing like the four-ship of today. A single F-35 or F-47 will lead a flight of two to six unmanned wingmen, each carrying sensors, weapons, or jamming payloads, and each individually cheap enough that losing one in combat does not trigger a national crisis.
What the CCA Program Actually Is
CCA is a family of autonomous uncrewed combat air vehicles designed to operate alongside manned fighters. The Air Force has selected General Atomics and Anduril as the two companies developing the first increment of CCA prototypes, each building a stealthy, jet-powered airframe roughly the size of a light fighter.
The core idea is that CCAs are much cheaper than manned fighters, potentially under thirty million dollars per unit in the first generation and with a clear path toward lower prices in later increments. That cost profile makes them attritable, meaning commanders can accept losses in combat without triggering the same political consequences as losing a manned fighter and its pilot.
General Atomics YFQ-42 and Anduril YFQ-44
The two initial CCA airframes received their military designations in 2025. The General Atomics design, the YFQ-42, is derived from the company’s long line of unmanned aircraft, including the MQ-20 Avenger. It is a clean, low-observable platform with internal weapons carriage and a single jet engine.
Anduril’s YFQ-44 Fury is a fresh design, smaller and built explicitly for software-defined autonomy. Anduril’s Lattice command-and-control system is at the heart of both the vehicle and the broader CCA ecosystem, and the YFQ-44 is intended to demonstrate how a newer entrant can compress the development cycle that traditionally takes legacy contractors a decade or more.
Both aircraft are expected to fly in 2025 and 2026 under Increment 1. A second increment is already planned, with additional competitors likely including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, each proposing distinct approaches.
What CCAs Will Actually Do
The missions assigned to the first increment of CCAs are deliberately narrow. Early aircraft will act as missile carriers, extending the magazine of manned fighters and letting a single F-35 engage more targets than its internal weapons bay allows. Later increments will add electronic warfare, sensor extension, and dedicated strike roles.
A flight of F-35s working with CCAs could push the unmanned aircraft ahead to scout, illuminate targets, and absorb the first wave of enemy fire. If the enemy engages the CCAs, the manned fighters preserve their stealth by keeping their own radars silent and their weapons bays closed. If the CCAs survive, they add their missiles to the engagement.
Against advanced threats such as integrated air defense systems and peer fighters, this kind of division of labor could be decisive. One manned fighter plus four CCAs is not five fighters, but it is far more than one, and it is nothing like a traditional unmanned drone.
The Autonomy Problem
CCAs only work if they can actually fly, fight, and navigate with limited human input. A pilot cannot directly fly four extra aircraft in the middle of a dogfight. The CCAs must understand a mission, react to threats, and coordinate among themselves while the crewed pilot makes high-level tactical decisions.
This is where the program’s biggest technical risk lies. Autonomy software must be robust enough to trust in combat, safe enough to operate in cluttered airspace, and predictable enough that the human flight lead knows what each CCA will do in a given situation. The Air Force has been running live-fly experiments, including the X-62 VISTA program, to mature these behaviors.
Cost, Scale, and Production
The promise of CCAs collapses if unit cost balloons. Both General Atomics and Anduril are designing for high-rate production, modular payloads, and commercial-grade manufacturing. Anduril in particular has invested in a large production facility in Ohio that is designed to produce thousands of airframes per year.
Current Air Force plans call for roughly a thousand CCAs in the initial fleet, supporting the F-35 force and eventually the F-47. That number is expected to grow. The long-term vision is that CCAs will outnumber manned fighters by a substantial margin, fundamentally rebalancing the composition of the American fighter force.
International Interest
Other air forces are watching closely. Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and several NATO partners are pursuing their own loyal-wingman programs. The Australian MQ-28 Ghost Bat is already flying. The UK’s Tempest program assumes CCA-like drones as a core element. These efforts vary in scope and maturity, but they point to the same conclusion: the age of the crewed fighter operating alone is ending.
What Comes Next
Increment 1 CCAs will begin fielding late in this decade. Increment 2 is expected to expand the mission set and drive unit cost down further. By the 2030s, the Air Force expects to operate a hybrid force in which manned fighters, CCAs, and space-based assets function as a single weapon system.
The loyal wingman era has begun. The question is not whether CCAs will be part of the future fighter force, but how quickly the rest of the world adapts to the doctrine, training, and logistics that a mixed manned-unmanned fleet requires.