Breaking Defense reports, “A reprogramming request recently submitted to Capitol Hill by the Pentagon asks for permission to shift an additional $150 million into the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, a budget increase of nearly 40 percent.”
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Tag: Loyal Wingman
Boeing to Invest In Long-Term MQ-28 Production in Australia
Aviation Week Network reports, “Boeing will launch construction in Australia later this year of the company’s first final assembly facility outside of North America in a move that commits to further production of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat beyond the first 13 aircraft ordered so far by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
USAF Ramps Up Drone Wingmen Plans
Defense News reports that the US Air Force “is ramping up plans for incorporating drone wingmen into its fleet, and envisions 1,000 of the so-called collaborative combat aircraft in service as it sketches out ideas.” USAF Secretary Frank Kendall said the service will request congressional funding in 2024 for the CCA program so it can map out operations, organization, and support for the new systems, including the Next Generation Air Dominance program of futuristic fighter aircraft.
Full Story (Defense News)
Boeing to Build Military UAVs In Toowoomba, Queensland
ABC News reports that The Boeing Company announced Wednesday “it has selected Toowoomba city in Queensland state as the final assembly point for its unmanned Loyal Wingman planes.” The Loyal Wingman will be the first combat aircraft “to be designed and manufactured in Australia in half a century.”
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Boeing Completes First Flight of Loyal Wingman and Says it Will Use the Pilotless Jet as Basis for Skyborg
Reuters reports that The Boeing Company “will use a pilotless, fighter-like jet developed in Australia as the basis for its U.S. Air Force Skyborg prototype, an executive at the plane maker said on Tuesday.” The company conducted its first flight of the “Loyal Wingman” on Saturday, with a Boeing test pilot monitoring “from a ground control station in South Australia.” The Australian government “said on Tuesday it would invest a further A$115 million ($89 million) to acquire three more Loyal Wingman aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to develop tactics for using the jets with crewed planes, on top of its initial investment of A$40 million.”
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Second Loyal Wingman UAV Performs Flight Tests
Aviation Week reports that a second Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS), “better known as the Loyal Wingman, has commenced flight tests at Australia’s Woomera Range Complex, including the raising and lower of the undercarriage.” Both UAVs “are performing separate flight tests.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Air Force Considers Two Business Models for Integrating Robotic Wingmen
FedScoop reported that the US Air Force “plans to create a ‘family of systems’ for its Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which aims to develop a stealthy sixth-generation fighter as well as drones – also referred to as autonomous ‘collaborative combat aircraft’ (CCA) – and various mission systems that could accompany them into battle. The service has outlined a similar vision for the B-21 Raider, its next-gen stealth bomber.” US Air Force Secretary Special Assistant Tim Grayson said the US Air Force will be “trying to take multiple capabilities from within a family of systems and execute them within a program office, but not as a single rigid, monolithically integrated platform, while at the same time having different program offices building different pieces of the solution that can still be interoperable and work together.”
Full Story (FedScoop)
RAAF Designates Loyal Wingman as MQ-28A Ghost Bat
Aviation Week reports that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has “designated the Boeing Airpower Teaming System, or Loyal Wingman, as the MQ-28A Ghost Bat. The naming is another milestone for the program as it continues development and testing.”
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US Air Force to Field Loyal Wingman UAVs
FlightGlobal reports that the US Air Force “is ready to move beyond experimentation with unmanned combat aircraft and toward acquiring and fielding the next-generation unmanned air vehicles (UAVs).” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said, “We are going to take a period of time to sort all that out and then we are going to get onto something that we are going to field. It’s a commitment to going forward in a direction that we have been thinking about and experimenting with but haven’t committed to before. So, that’s a major change actually.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
South Korea Unveils Loyal Wingman Air Combat Drone
Yahoo News reports, “South Korea today unveiled a new stealthy loyal wingman-type drone, the Low Observable Unmanned Wingman System, or LOWUS, which it plans to operate alongside the locally developed KF-21 Boramae next-generation fighter. The new drone is part of a growing fleet of low-observable drones being developed in South Korea as the country seeks to introduce new uncrewed technologies for a range of missions.”
Full Story (Yahoo News)
Boeing Conducts First Taxi Test of ATS Loyal Wingman
FlightGlobal reports that The Boeing Company “has conducted the first taxi test of the Airpower Teaming System (ATS) loyal wingman aircraft being developed in Australia.” Boeing Australia “notes that this is the first time the unmanned aircraft has moved under its own power, and reiterated that a maiden sortie is planned by the end of 2020.” During the taxi test, the ATS reached a speed of 16 mph, “and demonstrated the ability to stop and manoeuvre on command.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)