USAF CCA Round 2 selects nine vendors to advance autonomous 'drone wingmen' concepts

The U.S. Air Force has selected nine industry teams in Round 2 of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) effort to mature a broad spectrum of autonomous 'drone wingmen' concepts, an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense. The designs will be narrowed in later phases toward prototype candidates.

Discovered 2025-12-19T16:28:59.731301-08:00 | 2025-12-19T16:28:59.731301-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • The award advances the USAF's CCA procurement timeline by moving nine vendor concepts into a maturation phase, a concrete step toward fielding autonomous "loyal wingmen" and prototyping.
  • This selection directly ties into recent moves to source autonomy software and integration capability — see the USAF's earlier autonomy selections — which will shape systems architecture and prime/supplier roles.
  • Progress here has downstream implications for propulsion and supply-chain plans as manufacturers race to field suitable small engines; review the industry push in the small turbofan race and parallel work on runtime AI safety in the US–Japan CCA safety research.

Reported By

avweb.com insidedefense.com tectonicdefense.com Aviation Week Breaking Defense
Sources Tracked
5
First Seen
2025-12-19T16:28:59.731301-08:00
Latest Update
2025-12-22T12:15:40.932980-08:00
Coverage
Defense

Sources

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