WASHINGTON — The Air Force has selected General Atomics and Anduril to build the US military’s first Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), the service announced today.
In addition, Anduril, Shield AI and RTX subsidiary Collins Aerospace have been tapped to continue a competition that will determine who will provide the autonomy software for the loyal wingman drones.
In a call with reporters ahead of the announcement, Col. Timothy Helfrich, portfolio acquisition executive for Fighters & Advanced Aircraft, called the award a major step forward for the service’s future capabilities.
The service is keeping the cost of the program obscured, as well as declining to say the number of vehicles each of the two hardware providers will be contracted for through the first of three production lots.
There are some hints, however, with Helfrich saying a longstanding target of being roughly one-third the cost of an F-35 is being met — and as the cost of a Lot 17 F-35A was around $82.5 million, that would put the cost per unit for the CCA effort at under $30 million. And the Air Force is requesting roughly $1.4 billion to develop CCA drones in fiscal 2027, alongside nearly $1 billion for procurement.
