The U.S. Department of Defense is accelerating towards the era of unmanned air combat. The U.S. Air Force recently awarded contracts to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Anduril, which will not only develop a new generation of unmanned fighter prototypes, but also promote the large-scale mass production of hundreds of autonomous combat aircraft.
This move marks a major change in the US military's operational philosophy: in the current geopolitical environment, traditional reliance on manned combat aircraft is seen as a potential shortcoming that makes it difficult to cope with the needs of all-out war. The Air Force internal assessment believes that although in the foreseeable future, fighter jets operated by human pilots will still be superior to autonomous combat platforms in terms of comprehensive capabilities, the long period and high cost of acquiring a sufficient number of advanced fighters and qualified pilots have become key factors restricting the expansion of combat power.
Currently, in order to maintain the source of pilots, the U.S. Air Force must maintain a large fleet of trainer aircraft and a training system. However, the threshold for "one-in-a-thousand selection" of fighter pilots is extremely high, and only a few people pass the strict selection. Coupled with the fact that fifth-generation aircraft platforms such as the F-35 "Lightning II" have extremely complex structures and systems, as well as high unit prices and high operation and maintenance costs, there is a huge gap in the scale of the active fleet compared with the size of fighter aircraft such as the Spitfire and Mustang during World War II.
In the latest threat assessment, the Pentagon believes that no matter how high-quality the existing fleet and pilots are, their numbers will not be able to meet the needs of sustained operations and multi-directional deployment in high-intensity conflicts. Based on this judgment, the US military decided to rapidly expand the "number advantage" of air combat platforms by developing a large number of autonomous fighter jets as "Loyal Wingman" while disproportionately increasing talent and training costs.
According to the contract awarded this time, the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) project will promote General Atomics and Andurel to polish their YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A prototypes into mass-produced models FQ-42A and FQ-44 series respectively. The contract clearly requires that these unmanned fighter jets will enter a faster-paced mass production stage. It is planned to build the first batch of about 150 aircraft by 2030, and the long-term goal is to aim at a scale of about 1,000 aircraft.
By introducing this "high-density, low-cost" unmanned combat aircraft cluster, the US military hopes to "stack" air combat effectiveness with a large number of independent platforms while maintaining its existing complex, high-performance, limited manned main fleet, and amplify the overall combat effectiveness. These unmanned combat platforms will cooperate with manned combat aircraft on the battlefield to perform tasks including escort, air defense suppression, intelligence reconnaissance, decoy jamming and other tasks, reducing risks for manned aircraft crews and enhancing penetration and sustained strike capabilities.
It is worth noting that the new contract has also made structural adjustments in the procurement model: the development and procurement of aircraft hardware platforms will be separated from the development of airborne software, and the software part will be distributed to multiple companies. This move aims to avoid dependence on a single software supplier, form a more open system ecosystem, facilitate the introduction of more innovative algorithms and control systems, and improve the flexibility of software upgrades and security protection.
At the same time, the contract puts forward compression requirements for the research and development and deployment cycle. The goal is to compress the traditional development process that usually takes several years or even more than ten years to a "monthly" rhythm in order to respond more quickly to technology iterations and changes in battlefield needs. This also reflects that the US military is trying to introduce agile development and rapid iteration models similar to those in the civilian technology industry in the field of unmanned and intelligent equipment.
From a broader perspective, this is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Currently, whether in the United States or in Europe and other major military powers, rearmament, increased military investment, and accelerated installation of high-tech equipment are becoming a common trend. All countries are making efforts in the field of drones and various autonomous systems, considering them as one of the key pillars of the future battlefield to cope with the complex and ever-changing security environment and potential conflict scenarios between great powers.