{ "archive_path": "archive/1789553150.493513", "base_url": "www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans", "basename": "fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-16 10:05", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans.html" }, "domain": "www.twz.com", "extension": "", "hash": "1AWEJHS06RYHTZS50JQ1", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:20.959253+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:20.447522+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:21.431362+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:20.964578+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:57.350486+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:53.754118+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpk2a47hr7", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:53.742592+00:00", "index_texts": [ "The U.S. Air Force is now aiming to have at least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) in service by 2032. The service also wants to have an equal number of Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) drones to succeed its MQ-9 Reapers by that time. In terms of stated CCA force structure plans, this is a substantial step up, with the service having most recently talked about acquiring \u201cover\u201d 150 of these drones by the end of the decade.\n\n\n\nSecretary of the Air Force Troy Meink shared updates on the CCA program during a keynote speech at the Air & Space Forces Association\u2019s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference, at which TWZ is in attendance. The service\u2019s top civilian also announced that General Atomics\u2019 FQ-42 and Anduril\u2019s FQ-44 drones have now received official nicknames: Vengeance and Fury. This only represents a change for the General Atomics design, which the company had previously named Dark Merlin. In June, the Air Force announced that it was ordering both types into production. \n\n\n\nA composite image showing the FQ-42 and FQ-44 designs together with their new official nicknames. USAF \n\n\n\n\u201cWe will have autonomous fighters like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA. We intend to have at least 500 of these in service by 2032,\u201d Meink said in his speech. \u201cOur intent is to field 100 MMAs in 2029 at even a lower cost than the CCAs and a fraction of [the] cost of manned aircraft we build today. Then by 2032, 500 of these [MMA] platforms will join our force.\u201d\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to CCAs, \u201ctoday, the first FQ-42 and FQ-44 increments are already rolling off the assembly line,\u201d Meink added. \u201cThey\u2019ll be performing many of the same missions that we do with manned fighters today.\u201d\n\n\n\nA row of YFQ-42A prototypes. General Atomics previously gave the company name Dark Merlin to this design. GA-ASI \n\n\n\nThe Air Force\u2019s stated CCA force structure targets have fluctuated significantly in recent years. In 2023, then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall outlined plans to acquire at least 1,000 CCAs, if not more, across the life of the entire program. However, Kendall and other Air Force officials subsequently talked about a far smaller initial fleet of between 100 and 150 drones.\n\n\n\n\u201cThese contracts reaffirm our confidence in the strategic path forward for the program to procure over 150 combat capable CCA by the end of the decade,\u201d Meink himself said in a statement in June when the production orders for the FQ-42 and FQ-44 were announced.\n\n\n\nA YFQ-44A prototype, with an inert AIM-120 air-to-air missile under its wing, seen during a test. USAF \n\n\n\nThe FQ-42 and FQ-44 are also being acquired under the first phase, or Increment 1, of the CCA program. At least one additional increment is planned, and could lead to orders for one or more additional types of CCA. Though it is not immediately clear, it is possible, if not probable that Increment 2 CCAs are factored into the latest 500 drone figure.\n\n\n\nTWZ\u2019s Jamie Hunter got a close look at the Skunk Works\u2019 Vectis drone at Air, Space, & Cyber 2026. Photo: Lockheed Martin\n\n\n\n\u201cWe talk about 500 by 2032, [but] we could actually build more of them than that,\u201d Secretary Meink also said today during a question-and-answer session immediately following his speech. The goal of the CCA program \u201cfrom the get-go\u201d was \u201csimple aircraft that you could build fast and at a lower cost,\u201d he continued.\n\n\n\n\u201cSo now we\u2019re in a situation to [sic] where we could actually build more than we can actually afford to buy,\u201d he added.\n\n\n\nIt is unclear what the unit costs of the FQ-42 or FQ-44 are currently. The Air Force has said previously that it is targeting a price point of around $20 million apiece once full-rate production gets underway. \n\n\n\nBeyond any fleet size target, the Air Force is still very much in the process of figuring out how future CCAs will be deployed, launched, recovered, supported, and otherwise operated on a day-to-day basis, as well as employed tactically. During today\u2019s question-and-answer session today, Meink drew attention to a dedicated Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) the service has established to lead the process of laying the groundwork for future CCA operations. The EOU notably led a significant new round of operational testing of YFQ-42 and YFQ-44 prototypes at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada back in July, which TWZ was first to report on. The EOU supported another similar test exercise at Edwards Air Force Base in California in April.\n\n\n\nA YFQ-44A at Edwards Air Force Base during a test exercise in April 2026. USAF \n\n\n\n\u201cGetting them [CCAs] into these developmental kind of operational units, so they can start experimenting with that \u2013 familiarity breeds confidence, right?\u201d Meink said. \n\n\n\nThe Air Force continues to make it clear that it sees its future CCA fleets as essential for providing capabilities and operational capacity necessary to succeed in future conflicts, especially a potential high-end fight against a near-peer opponent like China.\n\n\n\n\u201cCollaborative Combat Aircraft change how we project power and generate mass in highly contested environments,\u201d Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said in a statement when the FQ-42 and FQ-44 production contracts were announced. \u201cDelivering this capability to our warfighters faster ensures our forces maintain the tactical edge required to deter and, if necessary, defeat any adversary.\u201d\n\n\n\nAs mentioned, the Air Force also now has plans to acquire 500 very different combat drones under the MMA program, and at a unit cost of approximately $10 million. This is also a notable increase in total planned fleet size for this effort, with a target of at least 180 airframes having been previously shared publicly.\n\n\n\nThe MMA drones are expected to conduct the same general strike and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission sets the service\u2019s MQ-9A Reapers perform today. Major Reaper losses in the course of operations against Iran, compounded by significant additional attrition and deliberate divestments in recent years, are key drivers behind the MMA effort, which officially kicked off in July.\n\n\n\nA US Air Force MQ-9A Reaper drone. USAF \n\n\n\n\u201cAs we saw in Epic Fury [the nickname for major combat operations against Iran earlier this year], ISR/strike platforms have been essential. We have used MQ-9 and even now the ULTRA aircraft to great effect,\u201d Meink said during his speech today. The MMA program is \u201cbuilding on these lessons\u201d and \u201cwill provide affordable, attritable, long-range strike, and we will be able to field them at scale.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cMMA is designed to deliver the results our combat commanders need,\u201d Chief of Staff Wilsbach said during his own separate keynote at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference today. \u201cThat\u2019s how we stay ahead by moving quickly, investing in new tech, and delivering to our warfighters what they need to win.\u201d\n\n\n\nIf the Air Force can meet its target of having a fleet of at least 500 MMA drones by 2032, this will be another significant boost to the service\u2019s overall uncrewed capabilities. As of May, the Air Force had 135 MQ-9s left in inventory, and there have been more reported losses since then.\n\n\n\nGeneral Atomics, which developed the Reaper, has already put forward a new design called Wildfire as a potential successor. Many other companies are already lining up to submit their own proposals to meet the Air Force\u2019s MMA needs.\n\n\n\nBetween the latest CCA force structure plans and the new MMA program, the Air Force\u2019s fleets of combat drones are on track to look very different by 2032.\n\n\n\nContact the author: joe@twz.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:51.657790+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:51.653332+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Fleet Of At Least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft By 2032 Now In USAF\u2019s Plans", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:51.608616+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:51.601779+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-16T13:33:21.438062+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "Fleet Of At Least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft By 2032 Now In USAF\u2019s Plans", "warc": null, "wget": "www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1789553150.493513", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-16T13:33:53.754118+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-16T13:33:20.447522+00:00", "path": "/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "8a2891fe-bafc-461b-8fa3-3ecdecc476ff", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1789553150-import.txt" ], "tags": ",escalation,pool,war-wiki", "tags_str": "escalation,pool,war-wiki", "timestamp": "1789553150.493513", "title": "Fleet Of At Least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft By 2032 Now In USAF\u2019s Plans", "updated": "2026-09-16T13:33:20.447339+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-16 13:33", "url": "https://www.twz.com/news-features/fleet-of-at-least-500-collaborative-combat-aircraft-by-2032-now-in-usafs-plans" }