Air Force Selects Five Companies to Build Autonomy Package for Drone Pilots

DAYTON, Ohio — The Air Force has selected five companies to build the autonomous system that will support the first batch of its unmanned cooperative combat aircraft fleet, according to a service official.

Brigadier General Jason Voorhees, speaking to reporters Monday at the Air Force’s Industry Lifecycle Day in Dayton, Ohio, said the service secretly awarded the contracts to the companies several months ago. He did not identify the companies selected due to security concerns.

Voorhies, the program executive for advanced fighter and aircraft, described the Autonomy Package as the “brains” of the Air Force’s future cooperative combat aircraft fleet. The systems are designed as unmanned aircraft that fly alongside manned fighter aircraft such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and perform a range of missions, including strike, reconnaissance and electronic warfare.

The service plans to deploy at least 1,000 CCUs by the late 2030s. It will do so in batches, with each batch bringing a different capability to the constellation.

In April, the Air Force announced it had selected General Atomics and Anduril to build the first prototype of the air vehicle. The companies will develop production demonstration aircraft, both of which are on schedule, according to Voorhees. The companies will work closely with the first batch’s autonomous system suppliers to ensure that the hardware and software systems are well integrated.

The Air Force plans to hold a competition and award a production contract for Increment 1 as soon as 2026. The service could choose to buy the aircraft from both vendors or select a system from another company, Foris said. If it selects multiple aircraft, the purchases are unlikely to be split 50-50, he noted.

“We’re not going into this with the idea of ​​an equal division. It’s going to be entirely based on the performance of each of those vendors and the capacity that the department needs, our joint partners and our international partners,” he said.

The service has selected hardware and software developers from an existing consortium of potential CCA suppliers, and plans to leverage this base as well as outside companies for future increases in the program.

“You want this market to be robust so that in the future, whether it’s a foreign partner, a joint venture partner or CCA Increment 2, we have these independent vendors of this product in the market that we can tap into in the future,” Vorhees said.

In parallel with work on Increment 1, Voorhees and his team are working to determine the capabilities the project needs for the next batch of aircraft. Col. Timothy Helfrich, the senior material leader for advanced aircraft, said in the same briefing with reporters that he expects to narrow those requirements in the coming months and award contracts by 2025.

Helfrich’s office recently held an industry day to share details about the timeline for Increment 2 as well as some of the capability options the service is considering, details of which have been classified.

The Air Force also wants to engage its international partners in future CCA discussions. Voorhees said that could include foreign military sales opportunities for the Increment 1, and he expects U.S. allies to work closely with the CCA team to determine Increment 2 capabilities and possibly even co-produce the aircraft.

“We have just begun to discuss bilateral and multilateral relations, and next fall we will be able to determine the real interest of each of our partners and who will and will not participate with us. But you can expect our closest allies to be in the mix for sure,” he said.