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[Global Times Special Correspondent Wei Qi] According to US media reports, the US Air Force recently revealed that it has selected five companies to develop autonomous "brains" for its unmanned wingman aircraft to support the first batch of unmanned "cooperative combat aircraft" (CCA). At the same time, the selection of the first batch of US cooperative combat aircraft is also in full swing. The United States plans to equip about 1,000 aircraft that can cooperate with manned aircraft.fighterUnmanned wingman will cooperate in combat, and the Asia-Pacific region will be its important "target area".

General Atomics' development strategy for the Gambit series of drones.

5 mysterious companies selected by the US military

The U.S. Defense News website reported on July 30 that according to Brigadier General Jason Voorhees, executive officer of the U.S. Air Force Fighter and Advanced Aircraft Program, the U.S. Air Force awarded contracts to five companies a few months ago. For security reasons, he was reluctant to disclose the names of the selected companies. Voorhees described the "Autonomous Operation Package" program as the "brain" of the U.S. Air Force's future "Collaborative Combat Aircraft" (CCA). These unmanned wingmen will cooperate with manned fighters such as the F-35 to perform a range of tasks including attack, reconnaissance and electronic warfare. The U.S. Air Force plans to equip at least 1,000 CCAs by the late 1930s.

Chinese military expert Zhang Xuefeng said in an interview with the Global Times that the US did not disclose the specific technical routes of these autonomous operation technologies, but it is obvious that artificial intelligence technology will be adopted, which means that the US collaborative combat aircraft is likely to become the first drones to adopt true artificial intelligence technology.

According to Zhang Xuefeng, different departments of the US military have previously developed artificial intelligence bodies that can be used in fighter jets through multiple programs, and a number of companies have such potential. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized the "Alpha Combat Test" (ADT) under the "Air Combat Evolution" (ACE) program, while the "Autonomous Air Combat Operations" (AACO) project of the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) focuses on developing medium-range air combat capabilities. The US Air Force also used the X-62A aircraft, which is based on theF-16The improved verification machine was used to conduct real-machine tests on some intelligent agents.

Building the fuselage in full swing

While the U.S. Air Force is selecting the "brain" for its unmanned wingman, it is also working hard to build the fuselage, that is, the collaborative combat aircraft. According to the U.S. "War Zone" website, five companies initially participated in the design of "Increment 1" (the first phase of the CCA program), namely Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Anduril. Dozens of other companies are supporting the program by developing autonomous technologies, sensors and other mission systems, command and control capabilities, etc. In April this year, the U.S. Air Force announced that General Atomics and Anduril were selected to advance the "Increment 1" program. Many other achievements, including the "Air Combat Evolution" (ACE) program of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), are being directly incorporated into the CCA program.

According to The War Zone, General Atomics' first CCA fighter is being assembled. To speed things up, some of the components originally built for the MQ-9 Reaper are being used to help speed up the work. General Atomics' CCA design is largely based on the XQ-67A drone, which was developed under the Air Force Research Laboratory's Off-Board Sensor Station (OBSS) program. The XQ-67A and its CCA design are leveraging the company's work on the Gambit series of drones. Anduril's CCA is based on the Fury drone design.

According to Zhang Xuefeng, the XQ-67A verifies the aircraft genus/species concept jointly implemented by General Atomics and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, which is a highly modular concept. It is envisioned that different types of aircraft can be built based on the same core chassis. The chassis includes core subsystems such as a three-point landing gear, avionics system, artificial intelligence brain, and engine. Then, based on this chassis, different wings, fuselages, and control systems are designed to form different aircraft. This is a bit like developing different models based on the same chassis or platform.

The next phase of the plan is being planned

Defense News said the U.S. Air Force plans to award a first-phase production contract to CCA as early as 2026. And the U.S. Air Force may choose to purchase aircraft or systems from both suppliers at the same time. If multiple aircraft are ultimately selected, the procurement share may not be 50-50.

The War Zone said that the U.S. Air Force also expects that the second phase of the CCA drone, the "Increment 2" program, will begin in fiscal year 2025, and its core requirements are still largely undetermined, but may include foreign participants. At the same time, the U.S. Air Force has actively cooperated with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in various aspects of the CCA program and related technologies, including seamlessly exchanging drone control between the services in future operations. The War Zone said that the U.S. Air Force's current plan is to purchase 100 CCAs in the first phase, and it is expected that these highly autonomous drones will work closely with manned fighters, especially stealthy fifth-generation aircraft and eventually sixth-generation fighters.

Zhang Xuefeng believes that General Atomics named its unmanned wingman "Abandoned Soldier", which hints at how the CCA aircraft will be used: an important role of the CCA drone is to serve as a "stand-in" for manned aircraft and perform dangerous tasks in dangerous areas. An important application area for the US CCA drone in the future is in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the US base clusters in the Asia-Pacific region are separated by the vast Pacific Ocean, which places high demands on the aircraft's range. Under cost constraints, how to compromise on range, maneuverability, payload, and speed on a limited body is an important issue facing the US Air Force. The United States has developed a series of unmanned wingman aircraft in an attempt to find an optimal solution, which in itself reflects the contradictory mentality of the US military.