More Range, More Missions: Air Force Leaders Open to a Wide Variety of Uses for CCAs

More Range, More Missions: Air Force Leaders Open to a Wide Variety of Uses for CCAs

Sept. 7, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the unmanned autonomous aircraft the Air Force plans to spend billions on in the coming years, could extend the operational reach of the crewed combat fleet and offer affordable mass. But the service is looking beyond just kinetic missions for CCAs, two of its top leaders said this week.

Gen. Mark D. Kelly, head of Air Combat Command, and Lt. Gen. James Slife, deputy chief of staff for operations, said at a Defense News conference Sept. 6 that CCAs offer a host of options for the combat air forces and in other mission areas. The service is still working to define “what they will do, and what they won’t do,” Kelly said.  

“What problem are you trying to solve?” Kelly asked rhetorically. The low-cost autonomous aircraft will offer capacity and mass in a peer fight but will also offer a boost in expansive theaters like the Pacific, where they can extend the sensing and shooting capability of crewed fighters and bombers, he said.

A fighter-CCA team could allow a manned fighter to travel to the limit of its range, or “I have the option of sending it 75 percent of that distance and let the CCA go further, and solve some of that range problem. That helps a ton,” Kelly said.

Such a tactic would mean “that fighter can stay on station quite a bit longer, because it’s not going to the limits of endurance and distance. It’s also helped me solve the second thing, which is risk,” Kelly noted—more CCAs forward will absorb the attention and firepower of the enemy, reducing the risk to the crewed fleet.

“We are calculating” the numbers that wring the most capability out of that equation, Kelly added. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has set a notional fleet size of 1,000 drones, but that number could very well change.

More CCAs forward also means more sensing and communications nodes, crucial for creating resilient communications that can degrade gracefully, Kelly said.

The network also streamlines the kill chain, Kelly said. In the past, fighter pilots would have to make sense of the tactical environment from a variety of separate sensors and “synergize” all that information in their heads, Kelly explained.

“We’re no longer there. And so CCAs have to plug into a synergistic environment to where the detection of an adversary, the track custody, the identification, the weapons employment, the assessment is going to be done by six or seven different entities, probably in many different domains,” Kelly said. “And they’ve got to plug straight into that. And that goes kind of back to the to the resilient comms out there.”

The modern battlespace means “we have to make sure we have a ton of sensing going on, again, across the [electromagnetic spectrum] and contributing to the overall picture,” Kelly said. CCAs in large numbers will make that possible, he added.

This issue of autonomy is also “not new” in the Air Force, and shouldn’t be a contentious notion, Kelly also argued, pointing to the MQ-9 and Global Hawk drones that can take off and land by themselves and chart their own courses.

And in weapons, Kelly said, autonomous systems have been used “for decades.” The AIM-120 AMRAAM missile, he noted, is initially pointed toward the target and launched, and it will “go where we tell it to go, it will look for who we tell it to look for.” At some point, though, “it hangs up on us. It says, ‘hey, thanks for the help. I will continue on this all by myself,’ and does its autonomous processing, autonomous flight profile, autonomous target selection, autonomous engagement.”

If the launching aircraft has to leave the fight before then, the missile can become autonomous earlier, he said.

As the Air Force works to advance CCAs, service leaders regularly meet with their Navy counterparts, Kelly said, to harmonize their concepts for CCAs, discussing requirements and cost issues like, “What’s the priority for sensing? … What are the tradeoffs we’re going to make in terms of range and payload and sensing?”

Such discussions echo those from the 1990s, “where the services got together and probably discussed and probably disagreed and bantered about what are the attributes and tradeoffs for a joint program like the F-35,” Kelly said.

Perhaps most crucial to those talks, however, is making sure CCAs of both services can interoperate and use common communications.

Kelly said he wants to see a similar solution to “what we did with the MADL (Multifunction Advanced Data Link) waveform, which is the waveform used on all F-35s—not just Navy or Marine, it’s also our allies and partners that use the same MADL waveform,” Kelly said.

Users collectively need to ensure “we don’t beam off and have CCAs who can’t talk to fellow CCAs, whether it be another service or whether it be one of our allies and partners,” he added.

Mission Sets and Modularity

Within the Air Force, how to organize CCAs is the subject of heavy discussion among leaders, said Slife, as they look beyond kinetic functions in the air battle.

“How we organize them will ultimately affect how we think about their utility, and what they what can be done with them,” said Slife, who was just nominated to be the next Vice Chief of Staff.

“At the end of the day, all airplanes are just airplanes. … They have different attributes. They have different range, speed, payload, propulsion systems, signatures,” he added. “Those are all just attributes of airplanes, and we call some of them fighters and we call some of them airlifters and we call some of them tankers, but at the end of the day, they’re just airplanes.”

With that mindset, the possible uses for CCAs expands dramatically.

“What would we do with CCAs? Might it be able to do resupply in a contested area? It probably will, but if you make CCAs organic to our current fighter squadrons, you’re probably not going to be thinking about how we use them for resupply,” Slife said. “If you make them organic to a C-17 squadron, we’re probably not going to think about how they can be used for some of the missions that Gen. Kelly highlighted

“How we think about the organization of CCAs and whether we want to specialize them for certain types of missions, depending on their attributes, I think is really the place that’s kind of ripe for experimentation. So I think those will be some of the interesting questions in the years ahead,” Slife said.

Asked about bomber CCAs or dedicated transport CCAs, Slife said pointed to the forthcoming B-21 Raider and Next-Generation Air refueling System (NGAS) as aircraft that may theoretically from CCAs.

“We should keep our options open for how we employ them going forward,” Slife said.

In addition to different kinds of CCAs, some experts and officials have called for the drones to be modular—able to do an attack mission one day, a jamming mission the next. Kelly expressed openness to the concept but “with a caveat.”

He said that the price of CCAs will determine how much “flex” they have to swing from one mission to another.

“If you look at the size, weight and power, we very likely will be into arenas where we have to choose,” Kelly said. A CCA may only be able to do one kind of mission per day, given the time and effort involved to change out its mission equipment.

At a higher price point, “you get to a different … scenario, much like an F-35. We don’t tell an F-35, ‘today you’re going to jam this particular waveform, and tomorrow, you’re going to sense, and the third day you’re going to shoot.’ No, they actually flex to what they need to do.”

CCAs would have that flexibility “in a perfect world … not constrained by resources,” Kelly said. In reality, the number, capability and flexibility of CCAs will have to be balanced “as to size, weight, power and cost. … But I think we’ll iterate our way there.”

Space Force Unveils New Mission Statement, Underscoring Guardians’ Distinct Identity

Space Force Unveils New Mission Statement, Underscoring Guardians’ Distinct Identity

Sept. 7, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

“Secure our nation’s interests in, from, and to space.”

Clocking in at nine words, that is the new mission statement of the U.S. Space Force, one created by Guardians for Guardians.

The service unveiled this fresh, succinct statement Sept. 6, several months after Chief of Space Operations Gen. B Chance Saltzman first expressed dissatisfaction with the previous mission statement: “The USSF is responsible for organizing, training, and equipping Guardians to conduct global space operations that enhance the way our joint and coalition forces fight, while also offering decision makers military options to achieve national objectives.”

Saltzman called the 36-word statement “long and cumbersome,” and in a C-Note sent to the entire branch, asked for feedback and suggestions for creating a clearer statement.

In the process, he ensured those responsible for upholding the mission of the Space Force could express it in their own words.

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations, speaks during the United States Space Forces, Indo-Pacific, activation ceremony hosted by U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Anthony Rivera/USN

“Our mission statement was sourced from a Guardian-driven process,” Saltzman confirmed in a statement.

The new statement was carefully designed to better reflect the essential functions performed by the Space Force in their service to the nation, Saltzman added. “In, from, and to space” serves as a representation of the service’s three primary functions:

  • In space: “Space superiority activities that protect the joint force and nation from space and counterspace threats”
  • From space: “Delivering global mission operations like satellite communications, positioning, navigation and timing, and missile warning activities”
  • To space: “Assured space access through the service’s launch, range, and control network infrastructure”

Saltzman has previously stressed that a service’s mission statement is “one of the most important expressions of service ethos.” He highlighted the importance of it being memorable, informative, inclusive, and capable of driving buy-in. The Air Force’s mission statement, for example, is “To fly, fight, and win … Airpower anytime, anywhere.” 

According to a service release, Space Force members held eight focus groups in July involving officers, enlisted personnel, and civilian Guardians from different commands and gathered feedback to refine the statement. The new mission statement underscores the branch’s commitment to highlighting its distinct identity.

“Our mission statement is a call to action that concisely encapsulates our purpose and identity as Guardians and members of the profession of arms,” Saltzman said.

In the coming weeks, senior leaders will engage in deeper discussions about the new statement with community members and relevant stakeholders to explore its meaning, a spokesperson at the Space Force told Air and Space Forces Magazine.

The U.S. Space Force, approaching its fourth anniversary in December, continues to grow and mature its young organizations as leaders stress its importance to U.S. military might. On the morning of the day the new mission statement was unveiled, Vandenberg Space Force Base collaborated with the Air Force to execute a test launch of an unarmed ICBM, marking third such test this year. Over the years, the Space Force has expanded its presence by establishing new component commands worldwide as well, including U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Forces Korea, and U.S. Space Forces Central.

USAF, DOD Working on New Target Drones to Simulate 5th-Gen Threats

USAF, DOD Working on New Target Drones to Simulate 5th-Gen Threats

Sept. 7, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of Defense and the Army last month revived a dormant effort to build a target drone that can mimic cutting-edge adversary aircraft—and perhaps breathe new life into the Air Force’s plans for a “Next Generation Aerial Target.” 

Army Contracting Command and DOD’s Test Resources Management Center announced a contract award Aug. 4 to Advanced Technology International Inc. and Sierra Technical Services on the 5th Generation Aerial Target prototype project, or 5GAT. 

5GAT development began in 2017, when Sierra Technical Services won its initial contract. By 2020, the stealthy unmanned aircraft was ready for first flight—but the the aircraft crashed on its maiden voyage. The Army then issued a second solicitation to industry in April 2022, then went dark once until the August 2023 contract announcement. 

Meanwhile, the Air Force launched its “Next Generation Aerial Target” program, asking industry in August 2021 for ideas on fielding unmanned, autonomous systems that could replicate threats posed by fifth-generation fighters, such as China’s J-20 and Russia’s Su-57. 

A year later, USAF went back to industry, this time upping its ask to include a requirement for target drones to fly at supersonic speeds. A few months after that, the Air Force inquired about ideas to operate NGAT a service—so that private companies would own and operate the target drones, just like they do with some “red” air aggressors. 

Little has happened since, according to the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center. “All AFLCMC efforts related to future aerial targets remain in the pre-acquisition phase,” said a spokeswoman for the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

In its fiscal 2024 budget request, the Air Force asked for $42.2 million in procurement and $6.9 million for research and development for target drones, but none of that funding would go to NGAT. Budget documents indicate no activity under that program name in 2024. 

In 2023, however, the program continued to “conduct engineering analysis to identify candidate configurations and concepts that lead to early identification of technical risks in integrating advanced electronic attack systems in prototype airframes,” budget documents state. “Results of these studies will be used to select the most promising concepts for further evaluation and follow-on detailed design, integration, ground and flight test of the candidate configurations.” 

Those studies likely played a role in the development of the 5GAT program. The Air Force referred all questions on that program to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A spokesperson at the Pentagon told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the Test Resources Management Center “is coordinating with the Air Force” on 5GAT. 

The 5GAT program “is a technology pathfinder for the future Next Generation Aerial Target,” the spokesperson said. “The 5th Generation Aerial Target does not replace the need for the future Next Generation Aerial Target.” 

Returning to Sierra Technical Services for the 5GAT program, the Pentagon indicated that the original “aircraft configuration and overall design is still considered to be sound,” despite the 2020 crash. If the aircraft’s efficacy and affordability are confirmed, DOD stated it anticipates a follow-on production contract. 

“The project may be transitioned directly to the individual service branches to complete range integration and transition the aircraft into production,” the prototype contract award states. 

Other potential competitors are waiting in the wings. In 2022, the Air Force Research Laboratory awarded a small business contract to Blue Force Technologies to develop a high-performance drone for adversary air training missions. That program came to be known as “Fury.” Defense software contractor Anduril announced Sept. 7 that it had acquired Blue Force and announced it would make “significant investments” in Fury, including its autonomous capabilities.  

adversary air drone
The low-cost attritable Fury, an aircraft built by Blue Force Technologies, is expected to be used for unmanned adversary air training against Air Force F-22s and F-35s. Screenshot from Blue Force Technologies.

Unmanned target aircraft are not exactly a new idea. The Air Force has a subscale aerial target in the BQM-167 and has for years operated a fleet of 74 unmanned QF-16s—modified, older-model F-16s—that can act as full-scale targets.

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Justin S. Cruz

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Justin S. Cruz

Sept. 7, 2023 | By Patrick Reardon

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2023 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 11-13 in National Harbor, Md. Air & Space Forces Magazine is highlighting one each weekday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Senior Master Sgt. Justin S. Cruz, the Superintendent of the Operations Flight with the 21st Civil Engineer Squadron at Space Base Delta 1, Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.

As the superintendent of Peterson’s largest flight, Cruz oversees some 134 military and civilian personnel across 12 different specialty shops, consisting of everything from electricians and HVAC technicians to plumbers and metalworkers. The flight has a $7.6 million budget and 18 service contracts, working to sustain more than 1,000 acres and 205 facilities valued at $2 billion. Cruz said his flight receives about 1,000 work tasks per month.

“We’ve got a very important mission,” Cruz said. “When [Guardians are] trying to track satellites and track objects in space that are traveling 1,000 miles per hour, they have computer systems that need to be working all the time. So, who supplies that power? That’s gonna be us.”

Prior to 2021, when he was first assigned to Peterson, Cruz said he’d never have guessed he would be such a central figure in supporting space operations. But now that he’s here, he has a better vision of how important the Space Force’s mission is—and how he can help.

“When you’re on a regular Air Force base, you can see the mission, as far as the planes and the jets taking off. When you’re on a Space Force base, it’s a little bit different,” Cruz said. “But [when] you go and get the briefings of how important the mission is and what they’re supporting, it’s pretty amazing. [I] just try to do my best to convey that message down to the lowest-ranking Airmen [in] the shops so they know what they’re doing on a day-to-day basis is important.”

From April to October of 2022, Cruz deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, in support of Operations Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield. His mission was to reconstitute bare-base assets to improve living conditions for service members who had previously been living in tents. Cruz led a 25 joint-member team to stand up 340 new housing units with reliable power.

While he was deployed at PSAB, Cruz also found a more efficient way for Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) crews to clean their aircraft. The BACN aircraft needed to be washed every day to avoid corrosion in the high desert temperatures, but because of PSAB’s austere location that required flying the plane two hours away to the nearest wash station. By repurposing unused water tanks and pipes at PSAB to direct waterlines to the BACN maintenance crews’ on-site workspace, Cruz and his team cut out the need for nearly four hours of travel time per day.

“What we did is really quite simple when you get down to it,” he said. “We had a great team and they loved helping out and developing innovative solutions.”

Cruz also led a $3 million project to construct the first Air Force-owned “Coyote” weapon system site at PSAB. His team leveled the area, constructed access roads for fuel trucks, converted Conex boxes into work areas, and installed AC and power generators to support the site, which is now protecting six weapon system platforms valued at over $200 million against unmanned aerial attacks.

Senior Master Sgt. Justin S. Cruz. USAF.

“They had to prepare the entire area. I mean, it was just sand. There was nothing out there,” Cruz said. “So that was a very cool project that we had our folks working on and they did an amazing job with that.”

Selected as one of the Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year, Cruz is being honored for demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovation. But he said that it was the leaders in the last years—those he’s worked with while deployed overseas and stateside at Peterson—who showed him the way. In addition to crediting his wife and parents for their constant support, Cruz said that the teams he has worked with—from his command chiefs to his Airmen in the shops—are just as deserving of the award.

“I’m not the one out there doing these jobs. I’m just managing people and resources,” he said. 
“So, this award to me, even though they say it’s an individual award, I feel like it’s a team award. It just shows how great the men and women are out there, serving with me at PSAB [and at] the 21st Civil Engineer Squadron.”

Meet the other Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2023 below:

WATCH: Paul Ferraro on RTX’s New Approach with Raytheon

WATCH: Paul Ferraro on RTX’s New Approach with Raytheon

Sept. 7, 2023

Paul Ferraro, President of Air Power at Raytheon, an RTX business, sat down with Air & Space Forces Magazine’s Editor in Chief, Tobias Naegele, to discuss why RTX combined its Missiles & Defense Unit and its Intelligence & Space Unit into a single business entity called “Raytheon”—and what the new approach means for the forces.

F-15E Maintainers Ready to ‘Show Why We Are the Best’ at William Tell Fighter Meet

F-15E Maintainers Ready to ‘Show Why We Are the Best’ at William Tell Fighter Meet

Sept. 7, 2023 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series previewing the return of the William Tell Air-to-Air Weapons Meet next week. The first part, on the pilots preparing for William Tell, is available here.

Next week, some of the best aircrews, maintainers, and intelligence Airmen from across the Air Force will gather at the Air Dominance Center in Savannah, Ga., for the William Tell Air-to-Air Weapons Meet, a prestigious fighter competition last held in 2004. While the pilots battle in the sky, maintainers will face off to determine who is the best weapons load crew in the service.

“This is definitely a big deal for us, because it hasn’t been done in so long,” said Staff Sgt. Jashaunn Jasper, a maintainer with the 4th Fighter Wing out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., which flies F-15E Strike Eagles. Even being selected to compete is an accomplishment, Jasper told Air & Space Forces Magazine, and now he and his team get to “go down and show why we are the best.”

To succeed in a weapon load competition, teams must strike a fine balance between speed and accuracy, which means following all the technical and safety procedures in the multi-step process of uploading complicated weapons. At William Tell, the F-15E load crews will hang four AMRAAM radar-guided air-to-air missiles and two Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles.  At any time in the load, evaluators deduct points for technical or safety deviations.

Each team has three people: a ‘one-man’ who leads the effort; a ‘two-man’ who prepares the racks and rails on the aircraft where the weapons will hang, and a ‘three-man’ who drives the jammer, a tiny lift truck for carrying weapons, and loads the weapons on to the plane with the help of the ‘one-man.’

The 4th Fighter Wing team, with Jasper as the one-man, Senior Airman Grace Forgey as the two-man, and Senior Airman Aaron Woods as the three-man, has had plenty of practice working together over the past few years.

“We have chemistry because we’ve been working together for a while now,” said Woods. “It helps knowing what this person is supposed to do and what that person is supposed to do.”

Senior Airman Cassandra Romero, center, 333rd Fighter Generation Squadron weapons load crew member, lines up an unarmed practice AGM-158 JASSM munition to load it onto an F-15E Strike Eagle as Staff Sgt. Alexandro Diaz, right, 4th Maintenance Group loading standardization crew member, evaluates her during a weapons standardization load evaluation at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, June 9, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Christopher Hubenthal.

That chemistry paid off when the team, which belongs to the 335th Fighter Generation Squadron, competed against load crews from the three other fighter generation squadrons in the 4th Maintenance Group for the chance to represent the wing at William Tell. 

“It was a little bit intense … since we were pretty much going up against the best in the unit,” said Woods, who noted that just a few seconds separated the winners at a past contest.

Many weapon load competitions stay within a fighter wing, but at William Tell, the 4th Fighter Wing crew will take on crews from the 366th Fighter Wing, which flies F-15Es out of Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho; and the 104th Fighter Wing, which flies F-15 C/D Eagles out of Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass. The winner of that contest will then face the best F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor load crews to figure out who is the best in the Air Force.

“Hopefully we’ll dominate that competition the first day so we can go on to compete against the other aircraft,” Jasper said.

There will be awards for top weapons crew overall and top weapons load per aircraft, and the attached bragging rights for each. Jasper and Woods are not alone in wanting to be the best: Capt. Andrew “PAÑIC” Munoz, one of the pilots representing the 4th Fighter Wing at the meet, is looking to do the same in the cockpit.

“Ultimately the goal is to win,” he said in an Aug. 14 press release. “I want to win, so that the 4th FW is named No. 1 in the air dominance category. It’ll show everybody that the F-15E is combat air power.”

An F-15E Strike Eagle takes off from Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Dec. 14, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Rebecca Sirimarco-Lang.

The fighters will compete in one-on-one basic fighter maneuvers; two-on-two air combat maneuvering; and ‘fighter integration’ where the various jets flown by different teams (F-35s, F-22 Raptors, F-15C/D Eagles, F-15E Strike Eagles, and command and control aircraft) work together to take out visiting ‘Red Air’ adversary units. 

The teams who work together best will receive the Maj. Richard I. Bong Fighter Integration Award, named after the top American flying ace in World War II. There will also be awards for the top wings in each fighter category, as well as functional awards for command and control, maintenance, weapons loading, intelligence tradecraft, and “superior individual performers.”

Fans can track the action by following scoreboard announcements posted each evening on social media, according to a July 27 press release.

The return of William Tell is a boon for Air Force fighter culture. The contest was held more or less every two years from 1954 to 1996 but dropped off for good after a 2004 revival to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first contest. USAF’s renewed focus on China as a peer adversary and the potential for fighting in highly contested airspace is the inspiration for bringing the competition back to life. Maintainers are excited to get into the action.

“Somebody referred to it as kind of like the Super Bowl for us, and that’s how I look at it,” Woods said.

About 800 Airmen are expected to participate, Air Combat Command told Air & Space Forces Magazine, representing nine squadrons from the Active, Guard, and Reserve components. Among them will be:

Air Combat Command

  • F-15E Strike Eagles from the 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., and 366th Fighter Wing, Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
  • F-22 Raptors from the 1st Fighter Wing, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.
  • F-35 Lightning IIs from the 388th Fighter Wing, Hill Air Force Base, Utah
  • Command and Control from the 552 Air Control Wing, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

Pacific Air Forces

  • F-22 Raptors from the 3rd Wing, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the 154th Fighter Wing, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii
  • Command and Control from the 3rd Wing, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan

Air National Guard

  • F-15 C/D Eagles from the 104th Fighter Wing, Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass.
  • F-35 Lightning IIs from the 158th Fighter Wing, Burlington Air National Guard Base, Vt.
The Power of Partnership: Enabling Innovative Electric Technology

The Power of Partnership: Enabling Innovative Electric Technology

Sept. 7, 2023

Collins Aerospace has spent more than a half century developing electric power generation technologies that power aircraft around the world. Alongside its industry-leading engineering teams, Collins credits development of next-generation electric technology to its strategic partnerships. As technology continues to evolve in support of aircraft electrification, key relationships position Collins to help advance hybrid-electric propulsion technologies in support of sustainable aviation across both military and commercial sectors.

Advancing electric power systems for the military and beyond

Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL)

Collins is currently developing a 1-megawatt electric generator for the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) as part of its Advanced Turbine Technologies for Affordable Mission-Capability program. The low-spool generator could have multiple applications for future manned and unmanned military platforms. 

 “We have a long history of working with the Air Force Research Labs and they do a lot of the cutting-edge technology for equipment that ultimately ends up on aircraft,” said Todd Spierling, Principal Technical Fellow for Collins Aerospace. 

With the addition of advanced mission systems, avionics and high-energy weapons, the next generation of military aircraft will require an order of magnitude increase in electricity that current aircraft require today. 

“Next-generation military aircraft will require increased power and operational capabilities to perform their missions, and we’re extending the work we’re doing with electrification to more and more defense applications,” Spierling said. “So how do we do that? What does that equipment look like, and how do we supply that power to the airplane?”

Collins Aerospace has been working with AFRL for several years now on the design and manufacture of the 1MW generator, which could be used to power these systems safely and efficiently. Collins is now moving into the building stage – and this piece of hardware will be one of the first pieces to be tested in The Grid.

The Grid is Collins’ new next-generation electric power systems lab located in Rockford, Illinois. The lab will be used to develop high-power, high-efficiency motors, motor controllers, generators and distribution systems, in addition to providing a space for extensive electric system integration. 

Partnering on UAV technology

In collaboration with Pratt & Whitney, Collins is advancing hybrid-electric propulsion technology through a number of demonstrator programs addressing a range of aircraft applications from advanced air mobility vehicles to single-aisle airliners. For example, the Scalable Turboelectric Powertrain Technology (STEP-Tech) demonstrator aims to advance technologies for distributed hybrid-electric propulsion systems for smaller aircraft such as high-speed eVTOL and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The program completed its first engine run and integration test in early 2023. At the larger end of the scale, Pratt & Whitney and Collins are developing a hybrid-electric GTF engine demonstrator, as part of the SWITCH project, supported by the European Union’s Clean Aviation initiative. 

As both Collins and Pratt & Whitney are businesses of RTX, the companies are uniquely placed to leverage collaboration between their closely integrated engineering teams, helping to accelerate the development of technologies for both commercial and military applications.

“When I think of aircraft electrification, what does it mean for the industry? What does it mean for our customers?” states Eric Cunningham, Vice President of Electric Power Systems at Collins Aerospace. “It means we’re going to start doing things differently and how we architect not just the systems, but the entire aircraft. If I think about what we did on the 787 and F-35 by going to a more electric architecture, Collins was the company that put those systems in place. And so, we’ve got a history of not just doing a component or two here and there, but we have the unique capability to integrate the entire electrical system including the generation, the control, the distribution, the emergency power.”

Military aircraft and the future fleet depend on the ability to execute unique mission profiles, pushing range, lethality and mission readiness. Demonstrator programs like STEP-Tech provide important opportunities for maturing technologies and exploring avenues to apply aircraft electrification to future applications, including military. The collaboration between Collins and Pratt & Whitney combines decades of expertise from each business’s specialties to execute advanced aviation systems utilizing electric architectures. 

Cutting-edge advancements powered by partnership

With more than 100 years in military aviation innovation and advancements, Collins Aerospace understands the importance of partnership to truly transform the future of aerospace. 

“We talk about this being the third era of aviation, when we went from piston engines to gas turbines and now to electrified propulsion. So, it’s a time to enter the industry when there there’s dramatic revolutionary things happening as opposed to periods of time when it’s more evolutionary,” muses Spierling. And these advancements couldn’t happen without the many partnerships that drive the future of electrified aviation.

Learn more about Collins Aerospace and the future of electrified aircraft.

Upgraded F-35 Deliveries Delayed to Mid-2024; USAF Prioritizes New Units in the Meantime

Upgraded F-35 Deliveries Delayed to Mid-2024; USAF Prioritizes New Units in the Meantime

Sept. 6, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The first F-35s with the Tech Refresh-3 upgrade—largely a processor upgrade upon which the Block 4 configuration of the fighter will ride—will be delivered before the middle of next year, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said Sept. 6.

Previously, TR-3 jets were forecast to become available in the last quarter of calendar 2023.

In the meantime, the Air Force is prioritizing deliveries of jets with the TR-2 configuration to new F-35 units, according to Gen. Mark Kelly, head of Air Combat Command.

Aircraft that come off Lockheed’s assembly line with the TR-3 hardware will be stored until testing clears them for acceptance by the services—flight testing began in January and is still ongoing. But the last aircraft delivered to the Air Force with the TR-2 configuration are earmarked for new F-35 bases, like Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., Kelly said.   

“We have updated our F-35 TR-3 schedule projections with a first TR-3 aircraft delivery between April and June 2024,” the Lockheed spokesperson said.

“As a result, we now expect to deliver 97 aircraft in 2023, all in the TR-2 configuration. We are continuing aircraft production at a rate of 156 per year while simultaneously working to finalize TR-3 software development and testing. Additionally, we remain focused on receiving the necessary hardware from our suppliers to deliver this critical combat capability for the F-35.”

Kelly, speaking at the Defense News conference in Arlington, Va., said a team comprised of ACC officials and the office of the deputy chief of staff for operations have worked out “a rather elaborate plan” which will “not delay the initial arrival of airplanes” at new F-35 bases.

He noted that Tyndall “just got their first four airplanes; we didn’t want to delay that. I believe that Alabama and the other units that are slated to get F-35s will get them on time.” The priority for new bases is so they can start to become practiced at operating and maintaining the jets as soon as possible, to make easier the absorption of more new jets later.

However, delay in follow-on deliveries to the new operating locations “will take an impact” on the combat air forces, Kelly said, “depending on the amount of the delay.”

Kelly said the Air Force needs the TR-3 with all possible speed, because “the high-end software, high-end hardware, high-end EW (electronic warfare) is hard business.”

“But we stay in lockstep with our industry partners. And we need to lock arms and help them work through this as a team, but there will be impacts,” he added.

When a unit converts to new airplane, Kelly said, “usually by the time they get their last airplane, the clock starts, and they need to be ready to go [to war] a year or so later. Well, that will delay and that will impact” the Global Force Management system.

Units in the process of receiving new equipment won’t be back in rotation for forward deployments on time, and that will affect USAF’s readiness, Kelly said.

The Air Force has long said it prefers to buy the minimum number of F-35s possible until the Block 4 is ready, and Kelly emphasized the service will continue to operate as best it can until TR-3 is ready. However, the upgrades are key to the future fight, he said.

“The whole idea of a challenging peer scenario is a very challenging electromagnetic spectrum [fight] and very capable threats,” Kelly said. “And if we’re going to engage that spectrum or engage those threats, we’ve got to have the fastest processing, the best jamming, the most coherent waveforms available. And that takes a really, really agile, stable software load to unlock those Block 4 hardware” [capabilities] and unlock the EW. That’s kind of the secret sauce that we’re going to need.”

Lt. Gen. James C. Slife—just nominated to become the new Air Force vice chief—echoed Kelly’s comments and added that “I wish we had the ability, when a crisis pops up somewhere around the globe, to be able to evaluate it and say, ‘Does this crisis need a TR-3 Block 35 or is a TR-2 Block 35 sufficient?’”

Instead, the Air Force is flying on “the knife edge of capability” because it’s short of fighters, he said.

“It’s frankly … check your pockets, see what you have in your pocket. And that’s what goes. So getting these jets on time and fielded is absolutely critical to our ability to meet the global demand signal on a day to day basis,” Slife said.

The Lockheed spokesperson said the TR-3 “remains our No. 1 development priority. We are applying critical expertise to deliver TR-3, with more than 500 employees, 15 labs and flight test occurring at Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Station Patuxent River.”

The software testing schedule has been delayed, the spokesperson said, “due to unexpected challenges associated with hardware and software development, component and system integration testing and qualification testing.” The Integrated Core Processor, which is the heart of the TR-3, is being built by L3Harris.

“We have deployed employees to L3Harris to help expedite hardware delivery and are working diligently with Raytheon on their delivery of the Next-Gen Electro-Optical Digital Aperture System (EODAS), which will also be integrated with TR-3,” the spokesperson said.