US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced plans to increase production during congressional hearings
What is known
According to a US Air Force spokesman, hetime considered the idea of using slave drones with a new generation nuclear bomber B-21 Raider. Drones could escort aircraft deep into enemy airspace. However, at this stage in the development of both programs, this idea seems unfeasible.
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B-21 Raider is still waiting for its debut flight,while Northrop Grumman hopes to secure the first contract before the end of 2023. The plane may take to the air in the middle of this year, but this is not a system necessity.
On the other hand, the US Air Force is still not completelydeveloped the concept of shared unmanned aerial vehicles. Their development is carried out under the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. We recently learned that the drones will be equipped with secret AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM) air-to-air missiles.
The US Air Force previously announced its desire to receive 1000drones for 500 aircraft of the fifth and sixth generations. But this is not an exact number. It is possible that the figures sent to the US Congress will not coincide with what the service will ultimately receive. But the key challenge now is to assess the need and determine the infrastructure requirements.
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But we know for sure that CCA drones will be many timescheaper than fifth and sixth generation fighters. The price of one F-35 Lithtning II aircraft from lot #14 was $78 million, excluding the cost of the F135 engine.