Achi news desk-
WASHINGTON –
The Air Force is betting much of its future aerial warfare on a fleet of more than 1,000 autonomously operated drones, and later this spring its top civilian leader plans to climb into an artificially operated warplane by intelligence and let him take it in the air.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told senators on Tuesday at a hearing on the service’s 2025 budget that he will enter the cockpit of one of the F-16s the service has converted for drone flight to see over it itself how the AI-controlled aircraft performs in the Air.
“I will have a pilot with me who will watch, as I will, as the autonomous technology works,” Kendall told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee defense panel. “Hopefully he won’t need him or me to fly the plane.”
Drone warfare has rapidly expanded from the fringes of combat to one of its primary weapons. Drones are a daily threat in Ukraine and the Middle East. In Ukraine, every day citizens are targeted by Russian drones but they also assemble drones to collect video from Russian positions. In the Middle East, Iranian-backed Houthis and militant groups have regularly employed sophisticated air, sea and underwater drones to target US bases and commercial ships in the Red Sea.
The Air Force began planning for its fleet of cooperative combat aircraft, or CCAs, several years ago, and envisions a scenario where a single piloted jet will be able to quarterback multiple AI-driven responsive drones, which the service called “loyal wingmen. .”
The service has been tight-lipped on what the fleet of drones will look like in terms of size or platform, whether they will be full-sized warplanes or something smaller. Kendall said the converted F-16 test flight will be done for him to observe the technology behind the future fleet.
The fleet is being designed specifically with future warfare, and possibly conflict with China, in mind. China has rapidly modernized its anti-intrusion capabilities as more sophisticated air defense systems make it dangerous to send manned aircraft too close. Drone aircraft could add to the service’s ability to breach those defences, and it is anticipated that they will provide support in a variety of future missions such as surveillance or jamming.
The Air Force requested US$559 million in the 2025 budget to continue research and development of the future CCA air system.
“The aircraft’s initial role was going to be anti-air, but it will have the potential to do other things,” Kendall said.
The drone fleet is also expected to be cheaper than developing new manned jets, Kendall said. The current goal is to have each cost about a quarter to a third of what an F-35 fighter costs now, or about US$20 million each.
