The U.S. Air Force has just successfully conducted an airborne test where an F-22 Raptor pilot directed an Anduril YFQ-44A Fury drone during simulated combat. According to The Defense Watch, the fighter pilot gave tactical commands to the autonomous wingman, which then interpreted them into a series of tasks and flight maneuvers to achieve the desired outcome.
The successful test is part of the USAF’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), which seeks to integrate drones into fighter squadrons. These uncrewed aircraft must be able to respond to the fighter pilot’s tactical commands and then operate autonomously, though. That’s because fighter pilots already have a heavy workload — flying their own aircraft, managing sensor data, threat assessment, and weapons release decisions — so requiring them to manually fly a drone is next to impossible. Command integration means that the F-22 Raptor pilot could assign the Fury drone a specific tactical task, like monitoring for and engaging enemy air defenses, while they focus on the primary mission, such as taking out enemy fighters.
This does not mean that the USAF can start deploying drones alongside fighter jets in frontline squadrons, though. Successful command integration is just the first of several hurdles that the program must go through before it can achieve operational status. The program needs to determine the limits of the drone’s tactical autonomy, safe flight control, and weapons authorization, all of which are separate functions that must be tested accordingly. The Air Force also needs to see how the drone performs with electronic interference, and how it could continuously operate if it cannot receive instructions due to interrupted communications. Aside from figuring out the drone’s capabilities and incorporating it into fighter doctrine, it must also be integrated into the USAF’s logistics and supply chain. This includes drone maintenance and service, weapons handling, deployment procedures, and forward airbase operations with limited infrastructure.
Even though the latest test is seemingly successful, the CCA still needs to go a long way before it can start operational deployment. Nevertheless, the USAF is intent on pushing the project forward, as it sees autonomous drones as a force multiplier for crewed aircraft, allowing a single pilot to command multiple jets to achieve missions at a lower cost compared to using all-crewed aircraft. Other nations, like Sweden and China, are also experimenting with a similar concept of having a single operator take command of multiple drones, but the most significant difference of the CCA is that it focuses on air power instead of ground-based operations.