🔷 CCA AI Pilots

In That Number

6,500

The Army is cutting 6,500 aviation jobs as the service rapidly shifts focus to unmanned systems.

That represents a whopping 21% drawdown of the Army’s 30,000 pilots, flight crew, and aircraft maintainers.

On the Radar

CCA software. New outlets reported that RTX and Shield AI are developing mission autonomy software for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) Increment 1 prototypes. RTX will power General Atomics’ YFQ-42, while Shield AI will fly Anduril’s YFQ-44.

• The Merge’s Take: The Air Force and related vendors declined to comment, so we’ll have to wait and see. In related news, the Navy flew 2 CCA surrogates with Shield AI’s autonomy software. Shield AI also flew its autonomy with Airbus on their DT25 target drone in Norway, where it identified, tracked, and intercepted another live-flying adversary aircraft (the video has 1M+ views).

Beacon. Scaled Composites’ Model 437 returned to flight testing after conversion to a flying test bed for autonomy software. The plane will support Northrop Grumman’s Beacon autonomy ecosystem initiative, an industry-centric opportunity for different vendors to experiment and mature software and related systems.

• The Merge’s Take: Flying autonomous software in a plane with a pilot on board should permit maximum flexibility for airspace and coordination. And because Beacon is an industry effort—not a government effort—and it’s using open mission systems, it should have a bit more freedom to explore variations and accelerate software maturation. Expect to see more news on this by the end of the year.  

Alt-GPS uncertainty. The SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) program is building a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of comm and missile tracking satellites. But the Tranche 3 Transport Layer—a 140-satellite constellation—is paused while weighing whether to kill it.

• The Merge’s Take: We know what you’re thinking: What does a missile warning communication constellation have to do with GPS-like navigation on Earth? Well, PWSA was designed from the beginning to have a GPS-alternative capability, but it requires a satellite layer to get the signals to the ground for it to be used. The core of the debate is whether to go with Tranche 3 or with MILNET, a funded program reportedly leveraging SpaceX’s Starshield that also has GPS-like capabilities. That reportedly has 150 satellites under contract. Keep an eye on this ongoing active debate.

TRIVIA

On this day 101 years ago, which aeronautical feat was achieved?

A) First carrier launch and land
B) First aerial refueling
C) First aerial circumnavigation

They Said It

“There’s a lot of talky-talky and not a lot of showy-showy.”

— Benjamin Jensen, a reserve U.S. Army officer and professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps University School of Advanced Warfighting, on the Pentagon’s adoption of drone warfare

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Knowledge Bombs

• The Air Force confirmed that the F-47 stealth fighter is in production, aiming for a 2028 flight

• Pratt & Whitney is developing a new engine class for CCA drones and cruise missiles

• Ursa Major won a $34.9M contract to deliver Draper rocket engines for space-based national security missions

• TEKEVER is building its largest drone production facility in the UK (opens next summer)

• Pratt & Whitney released a new image of its XA103 engine (F-47 propulsion program)

• Raytheon unveiled a new radar for the F-15EX—the APG-82(V)X–incorporates GaN technology

• GE Aerospace & Merlin Labs teamed up to integrate an AI co-pilot into GE avionics, likely targeting the KC-135 tanker’s cockpit upgrade program

• Raytheon revealed a new ground-launched GBU-53 StormBreaker variant

• Leidos’ Black Arrow small cruise missile reached 400 miles in a recent test flight

• The Pentagon’s Joint Fires Network transitioned from R&D to a formal acquisition program

• L3Harris unveiled a podded variant of its F-16 Viper Shield EW system

• Anduril is planning to produce 1,000 Barracuda-500 missiles ahead of growing demand signals

• Anduril conducted a successful test of a prototype surface-launched Barracuda-500

• Elroy Air tapped Kratos to be the exclusive US manufacturer of its Chaparral cargo drone

• Helsing unveiled its CA-1 Europa UCAV (looks like a Boeing MQ-28)

• South Korea signed an agreement to establish a GPS-like system called KPS (Korean Positioning System)

• The UK received a $186B investment pledge from US companies (Blackstone, Palantir, Amentum, Boeing)

• Boeing is set to convert 2 E-7 Wedgetails in the UK for the Air Force

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ANSWER
C) The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was completed on September 28, 1924. The 175-day trip was accomplished by 8 aviators from the United States Army Air Service. In case you were wondering, the first carrier launch and landing (1910 and 1911) and the first aerial refueling (1923) had already been accomplished.