Brig. Gen. Cain Baker, director of the Future Vertical Lift Cross Functional Team at U.S. Army Futures Command, said the service plans to expand its portfolio of autonomous air platforms with a collaborative combat aircraft-like capability that could be deployed within the next two years, Breaking Defense reported Friday.
“That has been a focus for the last … really year,” Baker told reporters Wednesday at the annual AUSA conference in Washington, D.C. “As we go forward, we’re watching closely in our experimentation to develop a full requirement, potentially to deliver our capability over the next couple of years.”
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How Is the Army Collaborating on a CCA-Like Option?
The Army’s interest in CCA systems comes as other service branches move forward on their own programs. The U.S. Air Force is running an active competition for CCAs. The U.S. Navy selected four vendors to come up with “conceptual designs.”
“We’re following the other services very closely as they’re looking at this, this concept capability,” Baker said.
“A platform you know, a loyal wingman, a CCA concept, allows you to increase mass while also reducing the amount of aviators you got to have in the air. So we’re working with both the INDOPACOM [Indo-Pacific Command], we’re working with Europe to look at the capabilities that they need in order to deliver that mass and really survivability,” he added.
Army Testing for CCA-Like Capability
The brigadier general stated that the Army plans to conduct testing for the CCA-like capability at its annual aviation experiment during the second quarter of fiscal year 2026.
“We’re looking at vendors potentially to come out and market with us,” Baker said. “That is what we’re really looking at, is what is the state of technology right now to develop a requirement that we can deliver?”
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