Armed forces worldwide are planning to pair their top-tier air superiority aircraft with unmanned systems. These unmanned ‘wingmen’ and their onboard effectors are expected to significantly enhance both the defensive and offensive power of manned aircraft. The crewed-uncrewed team will combine capabilities including kinetic air-to-air and air-to-ground strike and electronic warfare with enhanced situational awareness and communications, to enable deep penetration of contested airspace.
USAF CCA
The US Air Force (USAF) plans to integrate high-performance jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) system. Designated as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), they will operate jointly with the developmental 6th generation F-47 manned fighter, as well as with the 5th generation F-22 and F-35, and possibly other aircraft. While the F-47 will have integrated capability to control CCAs, tablet-based control systems will enable pilots of currently operational fighters to do the same. USAF’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposal includes USD 15 million for “Crewed Platform Integration” (CPI) technology. The F-22 is expected to be the first aircraft to receive the CPI control systems and other modifications relevant to CCA operations, allowing USAF to develop and test manned-unmanned operating procedures in advance of completing the full NGAD system. The CCAs are expected to have a 1,296+ km (700+ NM) operating range; top speed is classified, but understood to be supersonic.
The precise number of UAVs to be assigned per manned aircraft remains classified. A ratio of two to five CCAs per manned fighter has long been presumed, but in January 2025 Maj Gen Joseph Kunkel, USAF’s director of force design, confirmed that testing and simulation showed that one aircraft could control more than that. “(Pilots) can take advantage of the mass and present dilemmas to our adversary that we didn’t think were possible in terms of the force ratios that we can present.” In September 2024, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works general manager John Clark told reporters that the firm’s technology would permit pilots of 5th generation aircraft to control up to eight autonomous drones.
As of March 2025, USAF’s CCA prototypes are officially classified as combat aircraft bearing the designator YFQ (Y=Prototype, F=Fighter; Q=Unmanned). Upon entering service, the designator will become FQ. “Maybe (it’s) just symbolic, but it’s telling the world that we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare,” the then USAF Chief of Staff, General David Allvin, stated on 3 March 2025. CCA aircraft are considered ‘attritable,’ but not ‘expendable.’ USAF has defined ‘attritable’ unmanned aircraft as “purpose-designed and routinely reusable, but built affordably to (…) tolerate putting them at risk” in exchange for sufficient operational benefit.
According to Lt Gen Richard G. Moore Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, the USAF sees three major mission sets for the CCA, including electronic warfare (EW) and acting as sensor platforms. Initially, USAF plans to concentrate “on the ability for CCA to augment shooters and to be shooters themselves”, Moore stated in 2023 during a congressional briefing. To this end, RTX confirmed in September 2024 that it was working with USAF and the UAV contractors to integrate the AIM-120 AMRAAM with the two CCA prototypes. USAF also plans to arm the CCA with the developmental AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) which is expected to have a longer range.
To date, the CCA programme is running slightly ahead of schedule. Increment 1 of the CCA programme began in January 2024 with the selection of five firms to present competing designs for fully production-representative aircraft. In April 2024, USAF down-selected to the YFQ-42A from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) and the YFQ-44A from Anduril Industries. Flight testing of GA-ASI’s YFQ-42A Gambit 2 prototype began on 27 August 2025. In September 2025, the USAF expected the first flight of Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury to take place in October 2025, but by early October Anduril CEO Palmer Luckey stated that the maiden flight would be delayed due to the US Government shutdown. On 23 September 2025, Aviation Week – citing undisclosed sources – reported that RTX would supply the command and control/mission autonomy software for the YFQ-42A, while Shield AI would do the same for the YQF-44A; at the time, USAF declined to comment. Downselect and production contract award for Increment 1 are planned in 2026, presumably for a first order of 150 units; hypothetically the service could grant contracts to more than one firm. The USAF hopes to place these first units into service by 2029.
USAF plans to award concept refinement contracts for Increment 2 of the CCA programme by the end of calendar year 2025, according to Col Timothy Helfrich, Director, Agile Development Office at USAF’s Advanced Aircraft Division. Awards will be granted to “several” of the circa 20 firms which were invited to submit proposals; this will roughly equate with a traditional technology maturation and readiness review phase, Helfrich said on 24 September 2025 during the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Space and Cyber conference. While Increment 2 has been widely expected to focus on a lower-cost design that can be fielded quickly and in large numbers (and including additional mission sets such as strike and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; ISR), Helfrich cautioned that this decision has not yet been made. During the same event, Brig Gen Jason Voorheis, PEO Fighters and Advanced Aircraft, stated that Increment 2 could involve closer cooperation with international partners, up to the point of developing two separate CCAs, one for the USAF and one for an ally.
Total procurement goals are currently a matter of speculation. For the past several years, the USAF’s official minimum requirement has stood at 1,000 units. Recent reconsideration of the manned-to-unmanned ratio opens the path to a requirement for circa 2,500 UAVs or more, although the Pentagon has not revealed new figures. An unspecified number of increments are expected to follow Increment 2. By pursuing more-or-less continual, iterative development cycles, USAF will be able to adjust technology and operational concepts to ensure that the CCA fleet consistently reflects state-of-the-art technologies, as well as lessons learned from operating the preceding tranches. However, some observers caution that the goal of quickly acquiring a large number of sophisticated unmanned combat aircraft could strain industrial capacity, requiring significant investments in both traditional and nontraditional contractors to supply vital components including engines and thermoplastics.
RAAF ‘Loyal Wingman’
The Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF) MQ-28A Ghost Bat programme (formerly ‘Loyal Wingman’) is also progressing well. The Ghost Bat, developed by Boeing Australia in conjunction with the RAAF, marked its 100th flight in March 2025. Between April and June of 2025, the MQ-28A conducted a series of events with RAAF assets, collectively known as Capability Demonstration 2025 (CD25). In June 2025, it completed a series of operationally relevant exercises which validated the UAV’s qualifications. Successfully demonstrated capabilities included: autonomous behaviours and mission execution; multi-ship operations to provide combat mass; data fusion and sharing between multiple MQ-28 aircraft; and integrated flight with an E-7A Wedgetail early warning and control aircraft, simulating the capability to escort and protect high-value crewed assets. Boeing states that the 11.7 m long UAV displays fighter-like performance and has an operational range of around 3,704 km (2,000 NM). The MQ-28 will fly at high-subsonic speeds and manoeuvre at up to 4g.
Testing to date has been performed with eight MQ-28 Block I aircraft and has concentrated on confirming avionics and aircraft integration capacity. Three Block II aircraft are currently being assembled (as of September 2025) and are expected to enter testing by the end of 2025. These will be used for a more exhaustive operational capability evaluation and “(form) the basis of an initial operational capability for the RAAF and allied partners”, Boeing stated on 5 September 2025. A new GPS/INS navigation system is being introduced, and the aircraft will be more production and maintenance friendly.
A major addition will be the 1.5 m3 internal volume modular nosecone, capable of receiving exchangeable ISR and communications payloads including FLIR/IRST (forward-looking infrared/infrared search and track), aerial surveillance radar, as well as EW/ELINT (electronic warfare/electronic intelligence) payloads. “Block I is literally a prototyping platform, so Block II is taking lessons from that and getting the platform and hardware, cabling and so on, in a way where we can put irreplaceable items on the platform itself, and free up the nose for what it is designed to do, which is carry the replaceable payloads,” said RAAF Chief Air Marshal Stephen Chappell. While the RAAF stresses the ISR and EW capabilities of the aircraft, the platform’s design supports weapons deployment. The first weapons test is expected to take place in late 2025 or early 2026. It will entail firing an AIM-120 from a centreline pylon beneath the UAV (neither the Block I nor II is outfitted with an internal munitions bay) to engage a beyond-visual-range target cued from another platform. Regarding future weapon payloads, Boeing Defense, Space & Security CEO Steve Parker stated in March 2025 that “we’ll definitely look at air-ground in the future, but our focus priority is air-to-air”.
Despite the stated progress, the future of the MQ-28 is uncertain. To date, Australia has treated Ghost Bat as a pathfinder programme to evaluate the fundamental suitability of CCA-like aircraft for the RAAF, and to inform doctrine and concept of operations (CONOPS) development. In March 2025, Air Vice Marshal Nicholas Hogan, RAAF Head of Air Force Capability, stated that within the next 12 months the RAAF would provide the government with options regarding programme continuation. Describing the MQ-28 as “world class”, Hogan said that it “will be a very strong contender in any options we take forward to government”.
In anticipation of a potential procurement order, Boeing is building a dedicated production facility near Brisbane, to be operational by 2027. A production variant might take the form of a yet-to-be developed Block III configuration. A Block III UAV is expected to have an internal weapons bay and larger wings to provide enhanced lift. Boeing and the Australian government have already expressed hopes to export the Ghost Bat, and have contacted potential partners in Europe, in addition to maintaining a technical information exchange with the United States and Japan.
FCAS remote carriers
The European multinational Future Combat Air System (FCAS) is being jointly developed by France, Germany and Spain. Also known by its French acronym SCAF, it will team the manned Next Generation Fighter (NGF) with families of unmanned systems collectively known as remote carriers (RC). The NGF and the RCs together form the Next Generation Combat System (NGCS). All elements of the NGCS, as well as legacy platforms, will be connected to one another via a secure data system known as the Combat Cloud, enabling seamless data exchange and operational coordination. Airbus (Germany) serves as prime contractor for unmanned systems, with MBDA (France) and Satnus (Spain) as main partners, supported by additional firms such as Diehl Defence.
RC variants will fall into light, medium, and heavy categories, and have different capability sets. They will add combat mass and serve as force multipliers, operating as aircraft or as effectors depending on configuration. Mission profiles include ISR, EW, suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), as well as air-to-air and air-to-ground strike. Diehl describes both light and heavy RCs as similar to classical cruise missiles (when carrying kinetic warheads), although their modular payload capability will permit deployment on recoverable missions such as ISR and EW. The largest (and most survivable) RCs will act as loyal wingmen, escorting the NGF and helping to suppress both airborne and ground threats. RCs acting as effectors will be carried by manned fighters as well as by the larger RCs, especially ‘loyal wingmen’. Depending on the individual system, RCs might also be launched from the ramp of transport aircraft (the A400M could deploy up to 50 small or 12 heavy RCs), as well as from the ground, or from maritime platforms.
RC prototypes are being developed by Airbus, MBDA and Diehl. Concepts and mock-ups of several types were presented at recent European airshows:
Airbus
During the ILA 2024 airshow in Berlin, Airbus revealed a full-scale, 15.5 m model of a Loyal Wingman fighter to escort manned aircraft. The Airbus Wingman is conceived as a precursor to the FCAS RCs, and is designed to meet a current operational need of the German Air Force. According to an Airbus press release: “The Wingman’s tasks can range from reconnaissance to jamming targets and engaging targets on the ground or in the air with precision guided munitions or missiles. Based on the current concept, the Wingman is intended to augment the capabilities of current manned combat aircraft with uncrewed
In addition to the Eurofighter, the UAV could also team with other fighters such as the Rafale or Gripen, and escort non-combat aircraft such as the A400M transport or the A330 MRTT tanker, the firm said. The Airbus Wingman, which is currently at the concept development stage, is expected to operate at high-transonic speeds.
MBDA
The concept of the Expendable Remote Carrier (ERC) was presented during the Paris Air Show 2023. The 4 m long, 400 kg effector “could be launched from any platform: an aircraft, a ship, a submarine, a vehicle or a drone”, said Jean Judde de Larivière, head of MBDA’s SCAF programme. The operating concept calls for a swarm of ERCs to fly ahead of manned aircraft as well as ahead of cruise missiles to conduct ISR and as decoys to trigger enemy air defence systems. Varying payloads can be carried, depending on the mission. Flight endurance will be circa one hour. First flight of a demonstrator is planned for 2029.
One year later, MBDA presented the Remote Carrier Multidomain Multirole Effector (RCM2) at ILA 2024. It can carry either a high-explosive warhead, an EW payload or ISR sensors, making it expendable or recoverable depending on operational requirements. Swarm operations are also possible. The RCM2 has a loitering capability and an estimated range of 500 km. Precise dimensions and weight have not been revealed, but the effector is described as being cruise missile sized, most likely placing it in the 1,000+ kg range. It can be launched from aircraft, ground-based carriers such as the MRLS, or maritime platforms. Flight testing is expected to begin late in the 2020s, with service entry in the early- to mid-2030s.
Diehl Defence
Diehl Defence also presented an RC model during ILA 2024. The Future Effector – Adaptable, Networked, Intelligent, Xpendable (FEANIX) is a long-range light RC, weighing less than 300 kg and measuring less than 4 m in length. The low-observable FEANIX can be launched from the air, land or sea, and deploy sensors, non-lethal effectors, or lethal payloads. It will have a range of circa 500 km and be capable of a high degree of autonomy, reducing burden on manned aircrews. Diehl is aiming for operational availability “well before the FCAS realisation period of 2040+”.
In addition to the 6th generation fighter, RC systems will also operate with the Eurofighter Typhoon (Tranche 4 and the upgraded Tranche 3 LTE) and the Rafale F5. While the NGF is not expected to be operational until circa 2040, some RCs could begin entering service approximately a decade earlier. Accordingly, Airbus considers the Eurofighter to be “the logical platform for bringing FCAS technologies and operational concepts to maturity. These include plans of teaming with drones in the early 2030s and the first ability to command multi-domain force packages including satellites, fighter aircraft, tankers, frigates and special forces from the fighter’s cockpit.”
Until the NGW fleet is large enough to permit retirement of the 4th generation Eurofighter Typhoon and Rafale, the legacy aircraft will support FCAS and continue to deploy and operate with RCs, presumably well into the 2050s.
GCAP unmanned options
The British-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) will also integrate with unmanned support aircraft. Prime contractors are BAE Systems (UK), Leonardo (Italy) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan). GCAP’s wingmen are expected to be higher-end, reusable, and survivable, similar to the CCAs being pursued by USAF.
The programme is currently evaluating which UAV concepts would provide the greatest benefit. Leonardo’s CEO Roberto Cingolani suggested in June 2025 that his firm’s M-345 or M-346 trainer/light combat aircraft could form the basis of an unmanned wingman for GCAP. “We could modify those to be unmanned,” he told reporters on 17 June 2025 during the Paris Air Show. “But there are also big drones produced by Baykar that could be modified. In that case you have the unmanned, but you have to transform it into a real airplane. We start from a real airplane, transformed into an unmanned one.” Given Leonardo’s partnership with Turkish firm Baykar Technologies in the LBA Systems joint venture, the Italian firm would benefit from either solution being chosen.
Of the Baykar Technologies drones reported to be under consideration for GCAP, the prime candidate alluded to by Cingolani is the Kizilelma low-observable, jet-powered UAV. The Kizilelma is currently undergoing advanced flight testing, and is already expected to fly as wingman for the Turkish Air Force’s new TIA Kaan manned 5th generation fighter jet, but will also be capable of autonomous missions. The Kizilelma has a 1,500 kg payload capacity and is configured for laser guided munitions, missiles and long-range cruise missiles, as well as multiple ISR payloads. Baykar has announced plans to offer the Kizilelma in subsonic, transonic and supersonic variants. However, Cingolani implied that the unmanned element of GCAP is currently a secondary consideration. As he explained to reporters in Paris, the programme’s primary focus for the next five years will be the manned aircraft.
Additional initiatives
Beyond the CCA programmes discussed here, numerous other nations and services are also pursuing ‘loyal wingmen’ or other unmanned collaborative aircraft concepts. As one example, the UK is interested in an Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) outside the framework of GCAP. These are to serve as loyal wingmen for manned fighters, including 4th and 5th generation fighters, as well as future aircraft generations. In spring 2025, the RAF presented its first ACP demonstrator, designated StormShroud, which entered service on 2 May 2025, with an initial order for 24 platforms forming the minimum deployable capability. It is being used to develop and test autonomy, teaming, and Combat Cloud integration. In August 2025, the MoD published the Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (PMEN) for Tranche 2 of the ACP programme. The RAF is expected to offer a tender in spring of 2026, with a contract award sometime between 2027 and 2029.
Additionally, some firms are independently developing their own unmanned combat or combat support aircraft and pitching them in ‘cold calls’ to armed forces. These include the Athena and Apollo UAVs currently being designed by Kratos Defense. Smaller and cheaper than the firm’s XQ-58A Valkyrie, they are intended as loyal wingman drones for 3rd and 4th generation aircraft. Kratos is offering the UAVs to European air forces not participating in FCAS or GCAP. The company states that it has secured contracts for both drones, but has not disclosed customers.
Like the proverbial genie, unmanned wingmen, CCAs and autonomous effectors cannot be placed back in the bottle. Given the increasing complexity of modern aerial warfare, crews of manned aircraft recognise the advantage of off-board support aircraft requiring a minimum of direct control. Whether deployed in small numbers or as swarms, these systems increase mass, presence, situational awareness and arsenals – opportunities which armed forces ignore at their own peril once they become available.
Sidney E. Dean
