The main use case is to promote human pilots to the position of mission commanders, with AIs functioning as highly skilled operators of comparatively inexpensive robotic vessels under their tactical supervision.

In addition, CCAs are capable of serving as “a sensor, as a shooter, as a weapons carrier, as a cost reducer,” among other tasks.

Despite being significantly less expensive than manned fighters, CCAs would not be seen as disposable or even susceptible to attrition. To survive in combat, a CCA would be equipped with enough onboard defense systems and intelligence. As per US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, they could have up to “100 roles” to perform, such as remotely operated targeting pods, electronic warfare pods, or weapons carriers that offer extra sensors and ammunition while striking a balance between affordability and power. The number of missions that a single airframe can accomplish depends on the cost of the CCA; more costly designs can be multirole aircraft, while less expensive designs might be modular to carry out different roles on different days and be spared in a conflict.

The USAF is looking for CCAs that have more thrust than the XQ-58 and MQ-28 that are in use now.

Five contractor teams led by Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman were given contracts by the US Air Force on January 24, 2024, for the development of collaborative combat aircraft.

The US Air Force declared on April 24, 2024, that Anduril and General Atomics would be proceeding with development and that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman had been removed from the competition. By 2026, the Air Force hopes to have selected one of the two businesses’ products.

An approximate cost of half to one-quarter of the $80 million Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is associated with a CCA. The goal set by US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is to have 1,000 CCAs in the initial fleet. To work out concepts to incorporate them into the service, two CCAs may be paired with an NGAD or F-35 as parts of a crewed-uncrewed team. However, the entire inventory could be twice that size.

When submitting his budget request to the Chief of Staff for the fiscal year (FY) 2024, the 26th Secretary of the US Air Force included CCAs in his top seven priorities: The president’s budget request for FY2024 includes collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs), whose initiatives are expected to cost $500 million and potentially involve “100 roles” in USAF operations. Nearly the following five years, from 2023 to 2028, the US Air Force intends to invest nearly $6 billion in its CCA initiatives.