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The United States Air Force is exploring the possibility of pairing its future Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider strategic bombers with autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), commonly known as loyal wingman drones. General Thomas A. Bussiere, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, revealed this initiative but emphasized that the integration would follow after observing how CCAs perform alongside fighter jets due to range concerns.
General Bussiere spoke at an event organized by AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on December 5th. He discussed several major programs, including a potential mobile land-based strategic missile force and the development of the nuclear Sentinel ICBM. The B-21 Raider, which Northrop Grumman describes as the world's first "sixth-generation" combat aircraft, is expected to function as a multirole platform and a command center networked with other assets such as advanced wingman drones.
Bussiere stated, “...we’re going to let the fighter force kind of mature that concept with [Increment] 1 … and then we’ll be prepared to integrate that into the Long Range Strike Family of Systems, probably at a later date... I won’t get ahead of the Chief or the Secretary, but it’s a logical question to ask whether a long-range strike would benefit from the CCA concept … Right now, we don’t actually have that in the plan.”
