Overview
- Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced on Sept. 14 that the service intends to field at least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft by 2032 and to field 100 Massed Modular Aircraft by 2029 with 500 MMAs planned by 2032.
- The first Increment 1 designs are now in production and officially named the FQ‑42 'Vengeance' and FQ‑44 'Fury,' with prototype airframes rolling off assembly lines and moved through operational exercises.
- Manufacturers and the Air Force have completed live‑fire and operational integration tests, and industry has begun weapons fit checks on the FQ‑44 including JDAMs, SDBs and low‑cost cruise‑missile options.
- The program separates mission‑autonomy software from airframes with an open reference architecture, multiple companies are competing to supply autonomy and the service is testing portable command‑and‑control enclaves for distributed operations.
- The push is driven in part by heavy MQ‑9 losses in recent operations, Air Force cost targets sit near $20 million per CCA airframe and $10 million per MMA airframe, and officials warn production capacity, funding and sustainment remain key risks to hitting 2032 goals.