Four defence firms have been singled out as developing uncrewed fighter aircraft to be flown from U.S. Navy aircraft carriers, according to media reports.
Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman are reported to have been asked to produce design concepts for a U.S. Navy programme known as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), as per Breaking Defense.
Meanwhile Lockheed Martin is likely to be the firm producing a “common control” oversight system for the new capability. It teamed up with Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in November last year to test the force’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control Station’s (UMCS) ability to command an unmanned aircraft in flight.
The test used GA ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger autonomous uncrewed aerial system (UAS) as a stand-in CCA technology demonstration surrogate.
The U.S. Navy is already collaborating with Boeing on the MQ-25 Stingray, an uncrewed aerial tanker programme; it’s currently anticipated that MQ-25 will be deployed on a carrier at some point during 2026.
- You can read more details on the MQ-25 Stingray on the Boeing website and more about the common control test on the Navair website