Collaborative Combat Aircraft for Disruptive Air Warfare

Advances in autonomy and uncrewed systems technologies offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to combine the lethality of 5th-generation fighters with Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) designed to disrupt and defeat China’s counterair operations. And, unlike many advanced systems now in development, the Air Force could begin to acquire CCA at scale this decade instead of in a distant future that would be dangerously late considering China’s rapid defense buildup. 

The Mitchell Institute conducted a wargame and associated studies to assess how a family of uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft could increase the lethality, survivability, and capacity of the Air Force’s air superiority forces for operations in highly contested environments. Projecting decisive military power to distant theaters has long relied on the Air Force’s ability to achieve air superiority by conducting offensive and defensive counterair missions to defeat an adversary’s fighters, surface-to air missiles, battle managers, and other air defense threats. 

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