Latest news with #CollaborativeCombatAircraft
The Hindu
a day ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Drone makers battle for air dominance with 'wingman' aircraft
Defence heavyweights and emerging military tech firms used the Paris Airshow to showcase cutting-edge drones known as "wingmen": uncrewed aircraft designed to fly alongside next-generation fighter jets and reshape the future of air combat. The Paris show, the biggest aerospace and defence gathering in the world, featured a record number of drones, reflecting their rising importance after proving highly effective in the Ukraine war and as the U.S. prepares for a potential conflict with China in the Pacific. In April last year, the U.S. Air Force selected Anduril and General Atomics to develop the first fleet of drone wingmen, which are designed to fly alongside manned fighter jets and are officially known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). California-based Anduril, which has already supplied small drones to Ukraine and was making its debut at the air show, displayed a model of its 17-foot Fury drone, planned for production in 2027 as part of the U.S. Air Force's CCA programme. "We're moving extremely fast," Jason Levin, Anduril's senior vice president of engineering, told Reuters. "The aircraft is very capable. We can't go into specifics here, but it performs the mission like a fighter." Levin said Anduril had raised $2.5 billion to build a 5-million-square-foot production facility in Ohio, with construction set to begin next year. In March, Anduril signed a 30-million-pound ($38 million) deal with Britain to supply its compact Altius drone to Ukraine. The drone can be launched from the ground or air and is capable of conducting strikes, serving as a decoy or for cyber warfare. Larger drones like Fury are part of the U.S. CCA programme, which aims to field around 1,000 autonomous drones capable of conducting surveillance, electronic warfare and strike operations alongside piloted fighter jets, such as Lockheed Martin's F-35 and the next-generation F-47, which Boeing was tapped to build following its selection by the Air Force in March. General Atomics showed off a model of its YFQ-42A drone at the show, which is its equivalent of the Fury, with both designed for potential use in the Pacific if China invaded democratically-ruled Taiwan. Last week, Boeing demonstrated the potential of drones operating in coordination with human pilots during a groundbreaking test with the Royal Australian Air Force, the U.S. aerospace giant announced at the air show. In the trial, two of Boeing's Ghost Bat drones flew alongside an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft, with a human operator remotely controlling the uncrewed systems to carry out a mission against an airborne target, the company said. "The Ghost Bat has the potential to turn a single fighter jet into a fighting team, with advanced sensors that are like hundreds of eyes in the sky," Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said in a statement. European defence firms are also advancing wingman drone initiatives, including Sweden's Saab and a trilateral partnership between Dassault Aviation, Airbus, and Indra Sistemas under the Future Combat Air System. The programme aims to integrate autonomous drones with manned fighter jets. Turkey's Baykar displayed two of its drone models at the show for the first time: the high-altitude, heavy lift Akinci and the TB3, which has foldable wings and can take off or land on short-runway aircraft carriers. On Monday, Baykar and Italian defence and aerospace group Leonardo formally launched a joint venture for unmanned systems. Germany's Rheinmetall announced at the show that it would partner with Anduril to build versions of Fury and Barracuda, a cruise missile-style drone, for European markets.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - A trillion dollars annually for the Pentagon: Military spending is out of control
The era of trillion-dollar annual Pentagon budgets is upon us. Members of Congress are likely to increase defense spending by $150 billion through the budget reconciliation process. When added to the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 Department of Defense base budget proposal, Pentagon spending will total over $1 trillion a year. There are two factors that virtually guarantee that defense spending will never dip below that mark again. The first is political. If a future budget proposal dips below the $1 trillion mark, there will be howls about national security cuts, and few politicians are willing to weather those attacks. The second reason is more practical. The reconciliation boost includes development funding for a slew of new weapons programs — the F-47, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the B-21 strategic bomber, Sentinel ballistic missiles, underwater drones, hypersonic missiles and more. The services aren't buying these weapons yet, just paying to develop them. As expensive as they are now, they will become vastly more expensive in coming years when they go into production. This is the beginning of a Pentagon spending 'time bomb.' New programs currently entering into development will be vastly more expensive than they initially appear as they transition into the production and sustainment phases in coming years. The American people are now dealing with the explosion of the last Pentagon spending time bomb, the one that started on Sept. 11, 2001. We now pay more on the military than at any time since the end of World War II. Even at the height of the war on terror, with American troops fighting in two separate theaters, the military wasn't spending as much in real terms as it does now. After the Sept. 11 attacks, no one seriously questioned military spending in Washington. Politicians almost universally wanted to appear strong on defense, and so few were willing to do anything to impede military spending proposals. The services took advantage of the moment and launched a series of new acquisition programs, few of which had any relevance to the war on terror. The Future Combat System, the Littoral Combat Ship, the F-35, the Zumwalt-class Destroyer and others were begun in earnest after 9/11. These were all programs that began the last time the national security establishment decided the historical moment justified their profligacy with taxpayer dollars. In 2001, it was the fear of global terrorism. Today, a menacing China serves the same purpose. The national security establishment has seriously lost its way. It continues to spend more and more while delivering a lot of disappointments. All components of the U.S. military are far smaller than they were 50 years ago. The Army is approximately 40 percent the size it was in 1975. The Navy went from 559 ships to 293 today. The Air Force had more than 10,000 aircraft then and a little more than 5,000 today. What the military does receive is delivered years late and typically twice the quoted price. Many weapons systems also don't work too well. The F-35 works less than one-third of the time. The Navy is retiring Littoral Combat Ships decades ahead of schedule because they can't perform the missions the Navy needs. Army leaders cancelled the Future Combat System without producing a single operational vehicle. Today, policymakers are doubling down on the same structure used to create the current mess. While the American people continue to pay for the sins of the previous generation of policymakers, today's military leaders are setting up at least the next two generations for even more disastrous Pentagon spending. Defense spending has increased nearly 50 percent since 2000. The post-9/11 spending time bomb accounts for a significant portion of that increase. In 20 years, the American people could easily be spending $2 to $3 trillion a year to cover the obligations made today. The Trump administration still has a good opportunity to establish a better path forward. The first step is to reevaluate the strategy that underpins military policies. The world has changed over the last decade. China is facing mounting political, economic and demographic challenges. The U.S. no longer has massive forces fighting overseas. Before proposing gigantic new military spending, the administration should first formulate an updated strategy that can guide policy decisions. By doing things backwards, the entire national security establishment gives the appearance of making the defense budget itself the strategy. Dan Grazier is a senior fellow and program director at the Stimson Center. He is a former Marine Corps captain who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
A trillion dollars annually for the Pentagon: Military spending is out of control
The era of trillion-dollar annual Pentagon budgets is upon us. Members of Congress are likely to increase defense spending by $150 billion through the budget reconciliation process. When added to the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 Department of Defense base budget proposal, Pentagon spending will total over $1 trillion a year. There are two factors that virtually guarantee that defense spending will never dip below that mark again. The first is political. If a future budget proposal dips below the $1 trillion mark, there will be howls about national security cuts, and few politicians are willing to weather those attacks. The second reason is more practical. The reconciliation boost includes development funding for a slew of new weapons programs — the F-47, Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the B-21 strategic bomber, Sentinel ballistic missiles, underwater drones, hypersonic missiles and more. The services aren't buying these weapons yet, just paying to develop them. As expensive as they are now, they will become vastly more expensive in coming years when they go into production. This is the beginning of a Pentagon spending 'time bomb.' New programs currently entering into development will be vastly more expensive than they initially appear as they transition into the production and sustainment phases in coming years. The American people are now dealing with the explosion of the last Pentagon spending time bomb, the one that started on Sept. 11, 2001. We now pay more on the military than at any time since the end of World War II. Even at the height of the war on terror, with American troops fighting in two separate theaters, the military wasn't spending as much in real terms as it does now. After the Sept. 11 attacks, no one seriously questioned military spending in Washington. Politicians almost universally wanted to appear strong on defense, and so few were willing to do anything to impede military spending proposals. The services took advantage of the moment and launched a series of new acquisition programs, few of which had any relevance to the war on terror. The Future Combat System, the Littoral Combat Ship, the F-35, the Zumwalt-class Destroyer and others were begun in earnest after 9/11. These were all programs that began the last time the national security establishment decided the historical moment justified their profligacy with taxpayer dollars. In 2001, it was the fear of global terrorism. Today, a menacing China serves the same purpose. The national security establishment has seriously lost its way. It continues to spend more and more while delivering a lot of disappointments. All components of the U.S. military are far smaller than they were 50 years ago. The Army is approximately 40 percent the size it was in 1975. The Navy went from 559 ships to 293 today. The Air Force had more than 10,000 aircraft then and a little more than 5,000 today. What the military does receive is delivered years late and typically twice the quoted price. Many weapons systems also don't work too well. The F-35 works less than one-third of the time. The Navy is retiring Littoral Combat Ships decades ahead of schedule because they can't perform the missions the Navy needs. Army leaders cancelled the Future Combat System without producing a single operational vehicle. Today, policymakers are doubling down on the same structure used to create the current mess. While the American people continue to pay for the sins of the previous generation of policymakers, today's military leaders are setting up at least the next two generations for even more disastrous Pentagon spending. Defense spending has increased nearly 50 percent since 2000. The post-9/11 spending time bomb accounts for a significant portion of that increase. In 20 years, the American people could easily be spending $2 to $3 trillion a year to cover the obligations made today. The Trump administration still has a good opportunity to establish a better path forward. The first step is to reevaluate the strategy that underpins military policies. The world has changed over the last decade. China is facing mounting political, economic and demographic challenges. The U.S. no longer has massive forces fighting overseas. Before proposing gigantic new military spending, the administration should first formulate an updated strategy that can guide policy decisions. By doing things backwards, the entire national security establishment gives the appearance of making the defense budget itself the strategy. Dan Grazier is a senior fellow and program director at the Stimson Center. He is a former Marine Corps captain who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
1. Anduril
Founders: Brian Schimpf (CEO), Palmer Luckey, Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe ChenLaunched: 2017Headquarters: Costa Mesa, CaliforniaFunding: $6.3 billionValuation: $30.5 billionKey Technologies: Artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, edge computing, explainable AI, generative AI, machine learning, robotics, software-defined securityIndustry: DefensePrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 3 (No. 2 in 2024) Over the last year, Anduril has struck a series of deals that demonstrate the company's growth from a disruptive defense industry startup to one of the leaders in a critical sector. In April 2024, Anduril was one of two companies selected by the U.S. Air Force to build and test drone prototypes for the service's Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, the first in a new generation of uncrewed fighter aircraft, and a contract in which it beat out traditional defense stalwarts Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. And as defense moves into the AI era, Anduril has also been working more closely with the tech sector to create the military of the future. In December, Anduril partnered with fellow Disruptor 50 company OpenAI on deployment of an advanced AI system for U.S. counter-unmanned aircraft systems to be used in "national security missions." In February, Anduril took over Microsoft's multibillion-dollar Integrated Visual Augmentation System wearables program with the U.S. Army, a contract that was valued at nearly $22 billion. Then in May, Anduril teamed up with Meta to develop the VR and AR headsets for use by the U.S. Army as part of that program. "Anduril has a lot of traction," founder Palmer Luckey said in a CNBC interview in February. That traction has led to a rapid rise in the company's valuation. Last August, Anduril closed a Series F round, valuing the company at $14 billion and securing $1.5 billion in funding to build a more than five-million-square-foot factory, in addition to other investments in production across multiple states and in Australia. An announcement last week of a $2.5 billion Series G more than doubled that valuation to $30.5 billion, making it one of the most highly valued private tech companies in the U.S. It's hard to separate any one accomplishment from the rest for Anduril, but perhaps it's the company's push into the military headsets that signals the next era of disruption for the company but also takes things back full circle for Luckey, who sold his headset startup Oculus VR to Facebook for $2 billion in 2014, and was unceremoniously fired just a few years later. "Anduril builds a lot of different systems across a lot of different domains — so air, land, sea, subsea, space, cyberspace, and eventually subterranean," Luckey said in the February CNBC interview. "[Integrated visual augmentation systems] and systems like it are going to be the portal through which the warfighter commands and controls all of these different autonomous weapons and autonomous sensors." Luckey has spoken at length about his vision of putting such a tool in the hands of soldiers, in a vein that maybe still seems science fiction film and writing, but which he says will create a world that grants "not just the ability to see the thermal, visual and near IR spectrum, but the ability to see into a digital model of the past, present and future, and just seamlessly team with large packs of autonomous weapons." Of Anduril's deal with Meta, Luckey said, "Of all the areas where dual-use technology can make a difference for America, this is the one I am most excited about. My mission has long been to turn warfighters into technomancers, and the products we are building with Meta do just that." With technology, warfare and defense becoming more intertwined, and at a time of increased focus on efficient government budgets that Anduril's product-based model is based on, the company is clearly now one of the major players in a sector it set out to disrupt only a few years ago, and is perhaps even starting to chart a path well beyond the battlefield. "I'm a believer that we're going to mediate our view of the world with technology," Palmer told CNBC.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Yahoo
Air Force sets up new Experimental Operations Unit for Collaborative Combat Aircraft
The U.S. Air Force's 53rd Wing officially elevated its Collaborative Combat Aircraft unit to a fully operational squadron. The new Experimental Operations Unit was formally activated on Thursday, June 5 at Nellis Air Force Base. The unit had previously operated as a detachment under the 53rd Wing, based in Nevada, since 2023. This week's activation as a fully operational squadron comes as the Air Force steps up testing of the first phase of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (or CCA) program. 'The EOU embodies our commitment to rapid innovation and ensuring our warfighters have the most advanced tools to dominate the future battlespace,' Col. Daniel Lehoski, commander of the 53rd Wing, said in the announcement from the Air Force. 'They are ready to reduce risk in concurrency and deliver capability faster.' CCA development is a part of the sixth-generation Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet program, which itself started as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA) project in 2015. The idea is to create remote controlled aircraft to be essentially uncrewed wingmen for pilots, with each crewed fighter jet able to give commands to the drones. While other branches of the armed forces are working on a greater integration of drones and other uncrewed systems, the Air Force's CCA program is unique in that it would act as an uncrewed force multiplier for crewed aircraft. The program is being developed in two stages, or increments as the Air Force refers to it. Increment 1 is currently testing some of the new aircraft, which were designated the YFQ-42A and the YFQ-44A in March, and made by General Atomics and Anduril, respectively. The new experimental operations unit at Nellis will start with running simulations out of the base's Virtual Warfare Center and the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center. The Air Force's stated plan is to eventually carry out actual flight tests based on those simulations. Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, head of the Experimental Operations Unit, said that the new squadron's mission is to deliver 'combat-ready capabilities' to the force. 'Our vision is to create a collaborative combat ecosystem that is more agile, adaptable and lethal,' Jensen said. 'This will enable our forces to dominate the future battlespace and achieve decisive advantages in complex, contested environments.' The activation of the experimental operations unit comes only a few weeks after the Air Force began ground testing of CCA systems at Beale Air Force Base in California. Beale was selected as the home for the Air Force's first CCA Aircraft Readiness Unit. Navy SEAL Team 6 operator will be the military's new top enlisted leader Veterans receiving disability payments might have been underpaid, IG finds Guam barracks conditions are 'baffling,' Navy admiral says in email Navy fires admiral in charge of unmanned systems office after investigation The Pentagon wants troops to change duty stations less often
