Re: CCA는 NGAD 등장 이전에 운용될 예정

[위종민]

https://www.airandspaceforces.com/collaborative-combat-aircraft-ngad-timeline/ 

CCA는 NGAD 취역 전인 2020년대 후반에 운용될 예정이라고 사업책임자가 의회에 증언했다고 합니다. CCA는 NGAD 외에 다른 유형의 전술항공기들도 강화할 것이라고 하며 1,000~1,500대가 조달될 것이라고 했다고 하네요. 

프랭크 켄달 공군장관은 3월 28일 미 의회에서 CCA의 가격이 F-35의 1/2~1/4 사이일 것이라고 증언했다고 하네요. 29일 청문회에선 F-35A의 가격을 8,250만 달러라고 증언했으니 CCA는 2,060만 달러에서 4,130만 달러인 셈입니다. 

CCA의 상위 세 가지 임무는 shooter, electronic warfare platforms, sensor-carrying aircraft 라고 합니다. 스텔스 여부에 따라서 CCA에 요구하는 역할도 달라질 듯 하고, 지원기에도 운용기능이 추가되면 공중급유기나 전자전기, 조기경보기가 CCA를 호위전투기처럼 부릴 수도 있겠단 생각이..  

The Next Generation Air Dominance concept calls for a crewed aircraft with next-generation stealth collaborating with uncrewed escorts that will carry munitions, observe the battle space, perform electronic warfare, and possibly conduct attacks against ground-based air defenses. Mike Tsukamoto/staff; Airman 1st Class Erin Baxter.

Collaborative Combat Aircraft Will Join the Air Force Before NGAD

John Tirpak

4-5 minutes

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The first iterations of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, the drones that will pair with manned platforms, will join the Air Force’s fighter fleet in “the later 2020s,” several years before the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, service acquisition chief Andrew Hunter told the House Armed Services tactical aviation panel on March 29.

Hunter also emphasized that CCAs will augment all types of tactical aircraft, not just the NGAD system.

Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr., deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, also set the top three missions of the CCAs, in order, as:

• shooters
• electronic warfare platforms
• sensor-carrying aircraft

The NGAD and CCAs are “on different timelines,” Hunter said, although they are “obviously closely related to one another as part of a family of systems.”

NGAD, he said, is a “very high-end capability” geared to the threat environment of the 2030s, and “we are working very hard to deliver [it] …in the early 2030s.” CCAs, meanwhile, are slated to join the force later this decade. Hunter also said the notional number of CCAs will be between 1,000 and 1,500 aircraft.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the House Appropriations defense panel on March 28 that CCAs could cost between one-half and one-quarter as much as an F-35. Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt, F-35 program executive officer, quoted the price of an F-35A as $82.5 million in the March 29 hearing, which would put CCAs between $41.3 million and $20.6 million.

For the CCA program, “we are very much focused on speed-to-ramp, so we are looking to field that capability as rapidly as possible,” Hunter said. The Air Force’s approach in seeking proposals from industry for the autonomous, uncrewed aircraft will put a priority on contractors’ ability to “perform as quickly as possible,” Hunter said.

Moore, echoing previous Air Force officials, emphasized that CCAs are intended to build up the Air Force’s fleet of combat aircraft at an affordable price, providing the “amount of iron that needs to be in the air to confront an adversary like China.”

“The way that we can do that affordably is by buying CCAs, and by creating mass with CCAs,” he said.

The task now will be to define the tactics, techniques, and procedures needed to employ this new kind of weapon, and answer questions like whether CCAs will be part of manned fighter squadrons or “a separate entity,” and whether they will fly alongside crewed aircraft or “come together on the battlefield” from different places.

“Ordinarily we provide a requirement to industry, they come back with what we’ve asked for, and we know that it does exactly what we asked. In this case, we’ve asked a question to industry to see what’s possible rather than tell them exactly what we want,” Moore said.

The 2024 budget includes a request to create an experimental operations squadron which will explore and answer these questions, Moore said.

Asked what the CCAs will be counted on most to do, Moore laid out three basic mission sets.

First and foremost, he said, is “the ability to augment the combat force as shooters.” Second is “the ability to conduct electronic warfare” and the third is “the ability to be sensors in the battlespace.”

Pressed by lawmakers as to whether the Air Force needs seven additional fighter squadrons, as the service stated in the 2018 white paper, “The Force We Need,” Moore said it will depend on the success of the CCA concept.

“But certainly, capacity is an issue and the mass that it takes to confront an adversary like China is intense,” Moore said.

Both Hunter and Moore emphasized that CCAs are being procured in addition to all the crew

[백선호]

4천만 달러짜리 CCA는 레이다 달리고 미사일도 쏘는 물건일 수 있겠네요. 일단 오래된 F-16에 자율 임무 수행 소프트웨어를 깔아서 CCA처럼 쓰는 것은 어떨지...

https://www.edwards.af.mil/News/Article/3297083/dod-artificial-intelligence-agents-successfully-pilot-fighter-jet/

AACO’s AI agents performed one-on-one beyond-visual-range, or BVR, engagements against a simulated adversary, and ACE’s AI agents performed within-visual-range maneuvering, known as dogfighting, against constructive AI red-team agents.

[위종민]

CCA 핵심은 소프트웨어일 텐데, 소프트웨어만 잘 개발하면 퇴역한 기체들을 CCA로 쓸 수도 있을 텐데요. 센서 탑재기나 슈터 역할은 꼭 스텔스기가 아니어도 될 것 같고.

[Minowski(김유철)]

X62나 VENOM을 보면 미공군의 의도도 비슷한 것 같습니다.