The Future of Collaborative Combat Aircraft: Built on Versatility and Modularity.

The 2026 Farnborough International Airshow confirmed that Collaborative Combat Aircraft are moving beyond conceptual studies linked to future sixth-generation fighters. General Atomics’ FQ-42A Dark Merlin, BAE Systems’ Brontonax, Airbus’ U760 Ravenstorm, Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat and Anduril’s FQ-44A Fury represent five distinct approaches to the future of uncrewed combat aviation.

Some of these aircraft are already undergoing flight and weapons trials, while others remain at the prototype or full-scale mock-up stage. All, however, are intended to address the same operational requirement: increasing the number of sensors, electronic warfare systems and weapons available to a force, extending the reach of crewed fighters and shifting part of the operational risk toward less costly and more replaceable platforms.

Related News: Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA): The Future of Human-Machine Teaming in Air Combat

The FQ-42A Dark Merlin is one of the two aircraft selected by the US Air Force for the initial phase of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The central lesson from Farnborough is therefore not the emergence of a single dominant CCA design. It is the rapid segmentation of the market. These aircraft differ considerably in size, mission, autonomy, maturity and industrial philosophy.

Published performance figures should be treated with caution, as manufacturers may cite maximum range, ferry range or combat radius, which are not directly comparable. For CCAs, speed and range are only part of the equation: operational value will also depend on mission autonomy, communications resilience, turnaround time, maintenance footprint, software adaptability and the ability to manufacture aircraft at scale.

FQ-42A Dark Merlin: General Atomics Builds on Decades of Uncrewed Aviation Experience

The FQ-42A Dark Merlin is one of the two aircraft selected by the US Air Force for the initial phase of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme. The YFQ-42A prototype completed its first flight in August 2025, approximately 15 months after the development contract was awarded.

General Atomics describes the aircraft as a low-observable uncrewed platform primarily designed for semi-autonomous air-to-air missions. The Dark Merlin builds on the “genus/species” concept previously tested through the XQ-67A programme. The objective is to establish a common core aircraft architecture from which several mission-specific variants can be developed. General Atomics also associates this approach with its Gambit family, which includes concepts for long-endurance surveillance, air superiority and strike operations.

Rather than starting from an entirely new technological base, the company is using experience accumulated through aircraft such as the MQ-20 Avenger and the XQ-67A demonstrator. The MQ-20 has served as a test platform for mission autonomy, human-machine teaming and collaborative combat algorithms.

In February 2026, a YFQ-42A completed a flight lasting more than four hours using Collins Aerospace’s Sidekick mission autonomy software, integrated through the US government-owned A-GRA architecture. General Atomics has also reported autonomous take-offs and landings initiated through simplified operator commands.

At Farnborough, the company displayed a full-scale model of the aircraft and said that its main production site had been adapted to manufacture up to six CCAs per month. It has also completed a facility intended to apply low-observable coatings at higher production rates.

The FQ-42A appears to combine an air-to-air focus with reduced observability and an adaptable common architecture. Operationally, it could operate ahead of crewed fighters, carrying sensors or missiles and extending the forward line of detection and engagement. Until its payload, range and weapons configurations are disclosed, however, this should be considered a likely employment concept rather than a confirmed capability.

The Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat has completed the most advanced test campaign (Picture source: Army Recognition)

MQ-28 Ghost Bat: The Most Mature Operational Demonstrator

Among the aircraft showcased at Farnborough, Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat has completed the most advanced test campaign. Developed in Australia with the Royal Australian Air Force, it first flew in March 2021 and had exceeded 100 flights by March 2025. Farnborough 2026 marked its first static appearance at the British airshow.

Boeing lists a maximum take-off weight of approximately 12,000 pounds, or 5.4 tonnes, a top speed of Mach 0.9, an operating ceiling above 40,000 feet and a range of more than 2,000 nautical miles, equivalent to around 3,700 kilometres.

The Ghost Bat incorporates a modular nose section designed to accommodate different mission packages. This could allow the same basic aircraft to perform surveillance, tactical early warning, electronic warfare or other missions. Boeing has also said that the aircraft was designed to cost approximately one tenth as much as a comparable crewed platform, although no public production contract provides a verified unit price.

Its most important demonstration came in December 2025, when an MQ-28 launched an AIM-120 AMRAAM and destroyed an uncrewed target representative of a combat aircraft. The operation involved an E-7A Wedgetail, an F/A-18F Super Hornet and the Ghost Bat.

The E-7A supervised the uncrewed aircraft while the Super Hornet detected and tracked the target. Information was shared across the three platforms, after which the MQ-28 adjusted its position and received authorisation to engage.

The test demonstrated that a CCA does not have to function as the personal wingman of a single fighter pilot. Command, sensing and weapons employment can be distributed across several platforms. The tactical unit consequently becomes a network in which detection, decision-making and engagement are no longer concentrated within one aircraft.

In July 2026, the MQ-28 reached another milestone during Exercise Valiant Shield. It flew alongside a US F-15EX and participated in Agile Combat Employment operations from Rota International Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands. A US HC-130J transferred fuel directly to the Ghost Bat during a forward refuelling sequence.

This logistical demonstration was nearly as significant as the missile test. In the Indo-Pacific, CCAs will need to operate from dispersed locations, receive fuel and maintenance away from major air bases and return rapidly to the fight.

The Ghost Bat therefore stood out at Farnborough through three characteristics: its published range, modular mission architecture and practical experimentation with combat, command-and-control and support aircraft. It is not yet a fully operational squadron capability, but it currently provides the clearest indication of how a real CCA force could function.

Anduril’s YFQ-44A Begins Flight Testing for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft Program in 2025 (Picture source: Anduril)

FQ-44A Fury: Development Speed and Production Capacity as Combat Advantages

Anduril’s FQ-44A Fury reflects a different philosophy. The aircraft displayed at Farnborough measures 6.1 metres in length and has a wingspan of 5.2 metres. Anduril claims a maximum speed of Mach 0.95 and turning performance comparable to that of a fighter aircraft.

Fury uses a commercially available jet engine and modular subsystems. It can carry radio-frequency, infrared and other mission payloads, while external stores simplify the integration of weapons and sensors.

This arrangement involves a clear compromise. External payloads can increase drag and radar signature compared with internal weapon bays. The FQ-44A does not appear to prioritise maximum stealth in every configuration. Instead, it emphasises modularity, manufacturability, rapid integration and mission flexibility.

Anduril says the programme progressed from a clean-sheet design to a semi-autonomous first flight in 556 days. The aircraft executes its mission plan, manages flight controls and propulsion, and returns to land under operator supervision, without requiring a remote pilot to control it through a conventional stick and throttle.

In February 2026, the same aircraft flew with two different mission autonomy packages: Shield AI’s Hivemind and Anduril’s Lattice. The demonstration used the A-GRA government architecture, which is intended to separate the autonomy software from the air vehicle itself.

This separation is central to the US approach. The Air Force wants to avoid locking a CCA into the software originally supplied by its manufacturer. An open architecture could allow new algorithms to be installed, suppliers to be changed and aircraft behaviour to be adapted rapidly as threats evolve.

On 15 July 2026, a YFQ-44A launched an AIM-120 against a digital target over the Mojave Desert. The test validated the physical weapon-release sequence and systems integration, but it should not be equated with the Ghost Bat’s engagement of a physical airborne target. The US Air Force has also stated that CCAs will not be authorised to employ weapons independently, with the engagement decision remaining under human control.

Fury’s most distinctive feature may ultimately be industrial rather than aerodynamic. Anduril has said its Arsenal-1 production system could manufacture up to 150 aircraft annually in its current configuration.

For the FQ-44A, the most important combat performance may therefore be its ability to be produced, dispersed, and returned to service in large numbers. In a prolonged conflict, a slightly less sophisticated aircraft available by the hundreds may generate more operational effect than a highly advanced platform produced only in small quantities.

The U760 is intended to operate alongside crewed aircraft, particularly the Eurofighter, carrying out strike, air defense, data relay, and electronic warfare missions (Picture source: Army Recognition)

U760 Ravenstorm: Europe’s Heavy and Multirole CCA Concept

Airbus’ U760 Ravenstorm belongs to a heavier category. The full-scale model measures 13 metres in length and 10 metres across the wings, placing it closer to a light uncrewed combat aircraft than to a compact fighter escort drone.

Airbus is targeting availability in the early 2030s and has referred more specifically to a sovereign European solution around 2032. The planned mission set is broad. Ravenstorm is expected to conduct air-to-surface strikes with guided weapons, contribute to air defence with medium and long-range air-to-air missiles and perform electronic warfare missions.

Airbus has also identified suppression of enemy air defences and offensive counter-air operations using non-kinetic jamming effects as potential roles. This breadth distinguishes Ravenstorm from early “loyal wingman” concepts, which were often presented as relatively simple sensor or missile carriers operating close to a crewed fighter.

Ravenstorm instead appears to be conceived as a reconfigurable combat aircraft capable of changing roles through different payloads and software configurations.

At the heart of the concept is MARS, or Multiplatform Autonomous Reconfigurable and Secure. This mission system is intended to allocate tasks, plan routes, fuse sensor data, support target recognition and dynamically replan missions. Human operators would retain supervision and authority over critical decisions without continuously controlling each aircraft’s flight path.

Airbus envisages a gradual introduction of collaborative capabilities. Modernised Eurofighters could begin working with early uncrewed collaborative aircraft in the early 2030s, before the emergence of a broader system of systems connecting a future crewed fighter, Remote Carriers and the Combat Cloud.

The greatest risk to Ravenstorm may be the scale of its own ambition. Combining long range, low observability, electronic warfare capabilities and multiple weapon types could drive complexity and cost upward. A CCA loses much of its operational advantage if it becomes too expensive to acquire in numbers or too valuable to expose in contested airspace.

Brontanax is presented as the first British-designed autonomous uncrewed CCA (Picture source: Bae Systems)

Brontanax: A Sovereign British CCA for Typhoon and GCAP

Unveiled by BAE Systems on 22 July 2026, Brontanax is presented as the first British-designed autonomous uncrewed CCA. The prototype was designed and assembled at Warton with the involvement of more than 500 BAE Systems employees and over 75 British companies.

The aircraft is comparable in size to a Hawk trainer, although BAE Systems has not yet released information on its mass, speed, range or payload. Its planned missions include electronic warfare and precision strikes against both airborne and surface targets.

Brontanax is intended to receive mission-level direction from a Typhoon or from a remote mission commander. Its modular design and open architecture are expected to support the integration of new sensors, software and weapons without requiring extensive changes to the aircraft.

The prototype is being prepared for ground testing at Warton, with a first flight planned for 2027. The British government has committed £300 million to the Storm Fighter programme and has stated an ambition to introduce an initial capability before the end of the decade.

At this stage, the significance of Brontanax lies less in its undisclosed performance than in its industrial and operational positioning. The United Kingdom wants a sovereign platform with which it can develop collaborative combat tactics alongside Typhoon without waiting for the Global Combat Air Programme aircraft, currently expected to enter service from 2035.

The programme could allow the Royal Air Force to test command arrangements, data links, rules of engagement, mission autonomy and support procedures for mixed formations of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

Its schedule nevertheless remains demanding. Moving from a prototype undergoing ground preparation to a militarily useful capability before 2030 will require rapid progress through flight testing, payload qualification, autonomy trials, certification and unit preparation. Brontanax should therefore be viewed as an accelerated path toward a sovereign capability, rather than as an aircraft already approaching operational service.

Five Aircraft, Three Development Strategies

The five aircraft presented or highlighted at Farnborough reveal three broad approaches.

The first is sovereign capability and gradual transition. Brontanax is intended to provide the United Kingdom with a national platform that can operate alongside Typhoon before GCAP. Ravenstorm follows a comparable European trajectory, but with a larger and more multirole aircraft integrated into a wider mission architecture.

The second approach is operational maturation. Ghost Bat is progressing through weapons trials, command from an E-7A, cooperation with multiple fighter types and operations from dispersed locations. Boeing and Australia are no longer demonstrating only that the aircraft can fly. They are testing whether it can enter an existing operational chain.

The third approach prioritises industrial scale and software competition. Through the FQ-42A and FQ-44A, the US Air Force is funding two competing air vehicles alongside several potential mission autonomy providers. It plans to field more than 150 operational CCAs before the end of the decade, with a longer-term objective of approximately 1,000 aircraft.

Maintaining two competing platforms reduces dependence on a single manufacturer and allows the Air Force to compare performance, cost, availability and maintenance under increasingly realistic conditions. Competition can continue during production, including at the software level.

What CCAs Could Add to Current Air Operations? 

The operational value of CCAs does not lie in replacing one fighter with one cheaper drone. Their value comes from distributing functions across several platforms.

A modern crewed combat aircraft must combine a pilot and associated life-support systems, radar, passive sensors, electronic warfare equipment, secure communications, fuel and weapons. Concentrating these functions in one airframe provides flexibility, but also increases cost and the consequences of losing the aircraft.

CCAs can separate those functions. One aircraft may carry a jammer, another may act as a forward sensor, a third may transport air-to-air missiles and a fourth may generate a false signature or provoke an air-defence radar into revealing its position.

The advantage is geometric as well as numerical. A missile launched from a CCA positioned closer to the target may retain more energy during the terminal phase. A forward sensor may detect a threat hidden from the crewed fighter, while distributed jammers can generate several axes of attack and complicate an air-defence system’s response.

CCAs Will Evolve Alongside Crewed Fighters

The programmes shown at Farnborough are developing in parallel with a wider transformation of crewed combat aviation.

In the United Kingdom, GCAP is expected to enter service from 2035 and operate alongside Typhoon, F-35 and autonomous systems. British investment in Typhoon upgrades, additional F-35s, GCAP and Storm Fighter indicates that Brontanax is not intended as an immediate replacement for the future crewed fighter. It will form an additional layer of the combat force.

France is pursuing a comparable approach around the Rafale F5. Dassault Aviation is developing a low-observable uncrewed combat aircraft intended to complement Rafale after 2030, drawing on technologies previously demonstrated through the nEUROn programme.

In the United States, CCAs are expected to increase the reach, situational awareness and survivability of fighters operating in contested airspace. Their development is being integrated into a broader air-superiority architecture, with particular attention to mass production and software-defined autonomy.

The pilot’s role will consequently evolve. Pilots are unlikely to control each CCA as though it were a remotely piloted aircraft. They will instead define intent, assign areas of operation, establish priorities and set operational limits. The aircraft will then distribute tasks while requesting human authorisation for the most sensitive decisions.

The Ghost Bat example also shows that the human commander will not always be seated in a fighter. An operator aboard an E-7A, at a ground control centre or within another command node could manage the formation. Control of the CCA force may shift between platforms according to communications availability, tactical conditions and mission requirements.

A Likely Three-Stage Evolution

Between 2026 and 2030, CCAs will primarily support experimentation, doctrine development and the establishment of initial operational capabilities. Ghost Bat, FQ-42A and FQ-44A are likely to provide the most advanced test campaigns, while Brontanax is scheduled to fly in 2027.

During the early 2030s, air forces may begin fielding more specialised families of aircraft. Some could focus on air-to-air combat, others on electronic warfare, reconnaissance, suppression of enemy air defences or precision strike. Ravenstorm is intended to enter this generation, as is the future uncrewed combat aircraft associated with Rafale F5.

Over the longer term, the ratio between crewed and uncrewed aircraft may change. Air forces are likely to retain high-value crewed fighters for command, data fusion, tactical adaptation and politically sensitive decisions. Those fighters, however, will operate with a growing number of autonomous sensors and effectors.

Farnborough 2026 does not yet identify a clear winner in the CCA race. It does show that the category has become one of the central development areas in military aviation. The fundamental shift is not the disappearance of the cockpit. It is the end of the combat aircraft as a largely self-contained platform expected to carry all its sensors, weapons and electronic warfare systems into the fight.

Future air combat will be distributed. Its effectiveness will depend on the ability of crewed and uncrewed aircraft to exchange information, allocate tasks, move weapons forward and continue operating under electronic attack. In that architecture, the best CCA may not be the fastest or the most stealthy. It will be the one that can be manufactured at scale, deployed with a limited logistical footprint, updated regularly and integrated with both existing fighters and future sixth-generation combat aircraft.

Written By Erwan Halna du Fretay - Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Erwan Halna du Fretay holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and has experience studying conflicts and global arms transfers. His research interests lie in Security and strategic studies, particularly the dynamics of the defense industry, the evolution of military technologies, and the strategic transformation of armed forces.