The Air Force is spending billions to make sure its next fighter jet never flies alone. Budget documents for fiscal year 2026 show the service requesting $2.58 billion to develop the F-47, its sixth-generation stealth fighter, alongside $111.37 million for a fleet of AI-piloted drone wingmen designed to fly in formation with it. Taken together, the numbers represent the Pentagon’s most concrete commitment yet to a future where human pilots and autonomous aircraft operate as a single fighting unit, with the Air Force pushing to make the pairing combat-ready by the end of the decade.
Billions behind a new kind of air combat
The F-47 is the centerpiece of the Next Generation Air Dominance program, a long-running effort to replace the F-22 Raptor as America’s premier air superiority platform. Lockheed Martin was selected as the prime contractor, and the $2.58 billion FY2026 request covers system development and demonstration, the intensive engineering phase where prototypes are built, tested, and refined before production decisions are made.
Flying alongside the F-47 will be Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs, uncrewed jets that extend a pilot’s reach without putting another human in harm’s way. The Air Force selected two companies for the first batch of CCAs in 2024: Anduril Industries, building a platform called Fury, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, developing the XQ-67A. These Increment 1 drones are expected to handle sensing, electronic warfare, and communications relay duties, essentially acting as the F-47 pilot’s eyes and ears across a much wider swath of airspace than any single jet could cover.
A second CRS report covering FY2026 defense budget funding for selected weapon systems lists the F-47 and CCA as separate line items, confirming that Congress treats them as distinct but linked investments. The report notes that lawmakers adjusted the administration’s original request during the appropriations process, though the publicly available version does not itemize every amendment.
What the drones will actually do
The CCA concept works on a tiered model. Increment 1 drones, the ones funded now, are focused on extending the sensor picture and providing electronic warfare support. A planned Increment 2 would add weapons-carrying capability, turning the drones into strike platforms that can engage targets on a pilot’s command. The Air Force has described a future where a single F-47 pilot could direct two or more CCAs simultaneously, creating a formation that multiplies firepower and survivability without multiplying the number of cockpits.
How much independent decision-making authority these drones will carry into combat remains one of the program’s biggest open questions. The CRS briefing references the “loyal wingman” concept but does not describe the boundaries of onboard autonomy. Whether a CCA will follow pre-programmed flight paths, respond dynamically to threats using onboard AI, or make real-time targeting decisions without human approval is a question the Air Force has not answered publicly. Pentagon policy currently requires a human in the loop for lethal engagement decisions, but the speed of modern air combat, where fractions of a second can determine outcomes, is forcing a hard conversation about how much latitude autonomous systems will need to be effective.
The 2030 timeline and its risks
Then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers in 2024 that the service aimed to field an initial CCA capability by the end of the decade, a target that subsequent Air Force leadership has not publicly walked back. But the CRS documents funding these programs do not lock in a specific operational date. Budget requests fund development and demonstration work, which is an earlier phase than full-rate production or initial operational capability, so the 2028 to 2030 window should be treated as an aspiration rather than a guaranteed milestone.
The gap between allocating money for engineering prototypes and fielding a deployable squadron is significant, and Pentagon history offers plenty of cautionary examples. The F-35 program ran more than a decade behind its original schedule and exceeded initial cost estimates by tens of billions of dollars. The F-47 and CCA programs could face similar headwinds, particularly around software integration, secure communications between manned and unmanned platforms, and the challenge of certifying autonomous flight systems for contested environments.
The spending gap between the two programs also tells a story. At $111.37 million, the CCA request is a fraction of the F-47’s $2.58 billion allocation, reflecting a program still in earlier development with smaller engineering teams and fewer hardware commitments. That ratio will need to shift dramatically if the Air Force intends to buy CCAs in the quantities needed to pair multiple drones with each manned fighter. A sharp increase in CCA funding in the FY2027 budget would signal confidence that the technology is maturing on schedule. A flat or declining line would suggest technical obstacles or political resistance.
Why the urgency
China’s own sixth-generation fighter development and its aggressive investment in drone swarm technology are the strategic backdrop for every dollar in these budget lines. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has publicly displayed advanced unmanned combat aircraft concepts and is widely assessed by Western defense analysts to be pursuing autonomous teaming capabilities on a timeline that parallels or competes with America’s. The CRS documents focus on U.S. budget mechanics rather than threat assessments, so direct comparisons between American and Chinese programs require separate intelligence community sources. But the pace of spending leaves little doubt that Pentagon planners view the CCA program as a strategic necessity, not an optional experiment.
For Congress, the next several months will be critical. Armed Services and Appropriations committee hearings will reveal whether lawmakers plan to attach reporting requirements, testing benchmarks, or spending caps to either program. Conditions like mandatory quarterly updates on autonomy testing or restrictions on deploying fully autonomous weapons could shape how quickly CCA moves from prototypes to operational units.
Milestones that will decide whether the F-47 and CCA bet pays off
The Air Force has committed real money to a future where human pilots share the sky with AI-controlled drones, and Congress has approved the early funding to start building it. What no budget document can guarantee is whether the technology will mature fast enough, whether policymakers will grant the autonomy these systems need to be effective, or whether the combined F-47 and CCA system will arrive on time and on budget. The United States has placed its bet on manned-unmanned air combat teaming. The next few years of testing, oversight, and spending decisions will determine whether that bet pays off before a potential adversary fields something similar.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
