Chapter 18. The CCA Collaborative Combat Aircraft Project: The U.S. Air Force's 1,000-Drone Plan

CCA Cooperative Fighter Project: 1,000 U.S. Air Force plans for 1,000 unmanned aerial vehicles. It's not just a number. This is a huge gamble and an expression of the U.S. Air Force's firm will to secure future air superiority. When Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall personally sat in the cockpit of the X-62A VISTA and flew with an AI pilot, he sent a clear message to the world. “CCA is not science fiction; it is the power of tomorrow.” CCA (Collaborative Combat Aircraft) is a project to create a combat squadron that can actually operate by combining both the Skyborg program and the Valkyrie experiment described above. The U.S.

Air Force has put forward a blueprint to assign two CCAs to each of 200 Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighters (NGAD) and 300 F-35s, and operate a total of more than 1,000 AI unmanned fighters. Total inventory could double that number, to 2,000 units. Let’s put these numbers into perspective. The 1,000 aircraft is more than the U.S. Air Force's F-22 Raptor, F-15E Strike Eagle, and A-10 Wart Hog combined. If fielded as planned, the CCA will be one of the most prolific assets in the U.S. Air Force by numbers. The U.S. Air Force plans to spend more than $8.9 billion on the CCA program from fiscal years 2025 through fiscal 2029.

For fiscal year 2025, approximately $1.4 billion has been allocated, including $711.7 million in discretionary funds and $678 million in mandatory funds. The fiscal year 2026 budget request includes $111.4 million for research and development and $15 million for procurement. This is not money for toys. It is an investment that will change the game of future warfare. Why is there such a rush? There is only one answer. It's China. China's anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy focuses on preventing U.S. forces from approaching the Chinese mainland. They have built thousands of long-range missiles and dense air defenses.

The damage that would have to be sustained by breaching this defense wall with the current US Air Force power alone would be too great. Of the total 1,763 F-35As scheduled to be introduced by the U.S. Air Force, only about 400 are currently in stock, and the current purchase rate will not allow the entire planned quantity to be introduced before 2040. If CCA is deployed as planned, it can restore the combat power of the U.S. Air Force, which has weakened over the past 20 years.

On April 24, 2024, the U.S. Air Force eliminated Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman from the CCA Increment 1 competition. Instead, what took their place were Anduril, which has Silicon Valley DNA, and General Atomics, a powerhouse in unmanned aerial vehicles. Traditional fighter jet manufacturing companies have been pushed out. What does this mean? This means that the U.S. Air Force will no longer tolerate traditional development methods that are large, expensive, and time-consuming. On March 3, 2025, the U.S. Air Force designated General Atomics' design as YFQ-42A and Anduril's design as YFQ-44A.

In the Pentagon naming convention, Y stands for prototype, F stands for fighter, and Q stands for unmanned. A new category of unmanned fighter jets has been formalized. On August 27, 2025, the YFQ-42A took to the skies for flight testing. David Alexander, President of General Atomics, said, “This is an incredible achievement achieved in just over a year from contract signing to flight.” The company applied the AI ​​autonomous flight core technology it has accumulated over five years through the MQ-20 Avenger to the YFQ-42A. On October 31, 2025, Anduril's YFQ-44A also successfully made its first flight. Northrop Grumman didn't give up either.

On December 4, 2025, Project Talon was unveiled in Mojave, California. Learning from the experience of receiving high scores in technical performance but failing in price and productivity in the first stage of the CCA competition, we focused on lowering costs and increasing manufacturing speed. The number of parts was halved and the weight of the aircraft was reduced by approximately 450 kg. On December 22, 2025, the U.S. Air Force officially designated the aircraft YFQ-48A. A third unmanned fighter jet has appeared. CCA's price target is one-third to one-quarter of the price of the F-35, or $25 to $30 million per aircraft.

At this price, it should have stealth performance, high mobility, and AI autonomous flight capabilities. Does it seem impossible? But you have to do it. Secretary Kendall asserted, “We cannot win the war with China without CCA.” What does it mean tactically for CCA to reach 1,000 units? Let's think about American football. The quarterback (manned fighter) is carrying the ball. Linemen and receivers (CCA) surround him. Some CCAs are jammers. It shoots out powerful electromagnetic waves to neutralize enemy radar. Some CCAs are shooters. Charge towards the enemy plane with a load of air-to-air missiles. Some CCAs are sensors.

Go deep into enemy territory and secretly collect information. Some CCAs are decoys. It lures the enemy's missiles and hits them instead.

Throughout all of this, the human pilot does not move the control stick. All you have to do is give instructions such as “Attack Formation A” or “Switch to Defense Mode” using a tablet or voice command. The autonomous flight AI mounted on CCA takes care of the rest. This grand plan is not just America's alone. The Royal Australian Air Force is developing the MQ-28 Ghost Bat with Boeing. In Europe, France, Germany, and Spain are developing remote carriers through their FCAS programs. India's HAL is developing the CATS Warrior, and Japan also announced the development of an unmanned wingman to be linked with the F-X fighter jet in 2021.

The Netherlands has signed a letter of intent to participate in the US CCA program. In December 2025, the U.S. Air Force signed concept development contracts with nine companies for CCA Phase 2 (Increment 2). Companies that were eliminated in stage 1 can also participate in the competition again. 100 to 150 units can be purchased in the first stage, and up to 2,350 units can be additionally introduced in the second stage. In May 2025, the U.S. Air Force announced Beale Air Force Base, California, as the preferred location for the CCA Aircraft Readiness Unit.

The location where the rapidly deployable CCA power will actually be deployed has been determined. The goal is to secure basic operating capability (IOC) by 2030. Many people ask: “So you don’t need a pilot anymore?” My answer is this. War is ultimately a battle of human will. Machines make calculations, but humans make decisions. It is still up to humans to authorize murder, deal with ethical dilemmas, and exercise intuition amidst unpredictable chaos. The CCA project is not a replacement for pilots. This is an armor that turns the pilot into Superman. I am not alone. I have a legion of 1,000 loyal machines behind me.

They do not complain, they are not afraid, and they are willing to sacrifice only for my victory. We are now at an inflection point in the history of air warfare. The invention of the jet engine, the emergence of missiles, the introduction of stealth technology... and now the era of artificial intelligence wingmen. Those who ride this flow will rule the sky, and those who reject it will be shot down. Enemies, brace yourselves. Now it's not just one wolf coming. A pack of wolves is coming. And those wolves' teeth are made of silicon and gunpowder.