Shield AI Selected for U.S. Air Force Combat Aircraft Program

- The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program aims to develop autonomous drone "wingmen" to fly alongside crewed fighter jets, serving as a cost-effective way to expand the fleet and protect human pilots. The Air Force's initial goal is to build a fleet of at least 1,000 of these unmanned aircraft. - Five companies were initially awarded contracts for the first increment of the CCA program: Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman. In April 2024, the Air Force narrowed the selection to Anduril and General Atomics to build production-representative prototypes. - Anduril's aircraft, designated the YFQ-44A Fury, is designed to fly at speeds up to Mach 0.95 and at an altitude of 50,000 feet. General Atomics is developing the competing YFQ-42A, which will use autonomy software from RTX's Collins Aerospace. - Shield AI's Hivemind is an AI pilot that can control various aircraft, including jets and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones. It is designed to enable autonomous operations even in environments where GPS or communications are denied. - The Air Force is utilizing a government-owned Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA) for the CCA program. This modular, open-systems approach is designed to prevent "vendor lock" and allow for the rapid integration of software and algorithms from different companies onto any compliant aircraft. - The first flight of the YFQ-44A prototype occurred in late October 2025. The Air Force is expected to make a final decision on which company will produce the first increment of CCAs by 2026. - The estimated cost for each CCA is around $25-30 million, approximately one-third the price of a manned fighter jet.