{"id":71492,"date":"2025-10-09T19:27:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2025\/10\/09\/us-air-force-drone-wingmen-to-get-own-squadrons-chief-nominee-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:16:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:16:24","slug":"us-air-force-drone-wingmen-to-get-own-squadrons-chief-nominee-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2025\/10\/09\/us-air-force-drone-wingmen-to-get-own-squadrons-chief-nominee-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force drone wingmen to get own squadrons, chief nominee says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Air Force plans to create independent squadrons for its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/05\/20\/both-air-force-ccas-now-in-ground-testing-expected-to-fly-this-summer\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/05\/20\/both-air-force-ccas-now-in-ground-testing-expected-to-fly-this-summer\/\">future fleet of collaborative combat aircraft<\/a> instead of adding the drone wingmen to already-existing squadrons of manned fighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/09\/30\/gen-wilsbach-tapped-to-replace-allvin-as-air-force-chief\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/09\/30\/gen-wilsbach-tapped-to-replace-allvin-as-air-force-chief\/\">nominee to be the service\u2019s next chief of staff<\/a>, told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing Thursday the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard also may stand up their own CCA squadrons, along with the active duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collaborative combat aircraft are semi-autonomous drone wingmen that the Air Force wants to fly alongside manned fighters, such as the F-35 and the in-the-works F-47, a sixth-generation fighter that Boeing will build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force wants CCAs to carry out strikes, conduct reconnaissance missions, jam enemy signals or even serve as drones to lure enemy fire away from the piloted fighters. With pilots and aircraft limited, the Air Force sees CCAs as a so-called \u201cforce multiplier\u201d that can expand its ability to accomplish missions without putting more people at risk \u2014 and at a lower cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Anduril were selected last year to develop the Air Force\u2019s first iterations of CCAs. General Atomics\u2019 prototype YFQ-42A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/08\/28\/first-flight-tests-begin-for-air-forces-drone-wingmen\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/08\/28\/first-flight-tests-begin-for-air-forces-drone-wingmen\/\">began flight tests in August<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/09\/24\/anduril-nears-first-drone-wingman-flight-promises-early-autonomy\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/air\/2025\/09\/24\/anduril-nears-first-drone-wingman-flight-promises-early-autonomy\/\">Anduril\u2019s YFQ-44A<\/a> could begin flight tests this month. Ground testing of both CCAs has been under way since May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Thursday\u2019s hearing, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., said CCAs are critically important and transformative for the Air Force and will \u201cincrease lethality and decrease risk to manned platforms.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peters, whose state of Michigan is the home of Selfridge Air National Guard Base, said he hopes \u201cthis cutting edge technology\u201d will also be fielded to the National Guard, along with the active duty, particularly since the Guard has shifted from a strategic reserve role to an operational force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilsbach cautioned that the Air Force has \u201ca lot of learning to do\u201d with CCAs, but said the service expects they will not be embedded with already-existing fighter squadrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Instead, Wilsbach said, CCAs will make up their own squadrons and will be dispersed to fly alongside manned jets. That will include a strategic basing process, Wilsbach said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wilsbach also said that to his knowledge, \u201cI don\u2019t see why the Air Force Reserve [and] the Air National Guard\u201d wouldn\u2019t be considered for CCA squadrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In years to come, Selfridge is slated to receive the KC-46A Pegasus tanker and have its retiring A-10 Warthogs replaced by the F-15EX Eagle II fighter. Peters suggested CCAs could also fly alongside the F-15EX and KC-46.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peters also said the CCA program remains on schedule and on budget, and he called it \u201ca model for successful collaboration between the Air Force and industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Forming independent squadrons of CCAs could give the Air Force flexibility to move them around as needed, and not tie them to particular manned fighters or organizations the way they might be if they became part of existing fighter squadrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When the Air Force announced ground testing of CCAs had begun in May, the service also said the first aircraft readiness unit for the drones would be located at Beale Air Force Base in California. This readiness unit would keep CCAs in a \u201cfly-ready status,\u201d allowing them to be rapidly deployed when needed, the service said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Air Force chief of staff nominee Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach said the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve could be considered for their own CCA squadrons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":110562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news","daily-news-roundup","newsletters"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,160,36],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3412],"class_list":["post-71492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-daily-news-roundup","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HO3PYW3WHBE5TAKIQQRW2WFRYY","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2025\/10\/09\/us-air-force-drone-wingmen-to-get-own-squadrons-chief-nominee-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US Air Force drone wingmen to get own squadrons, chief nominee says - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Air Force chief of staff nominee Gen. 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