CCAs Head to Air Force’s Main Drone Base for Exercise

Both the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A Collaborative Combat Aircraft headed to Creech Air Force Base, Nev., last week for an exercise focused on employing the semi-autonomous drones in more austere environments.

It’s the latest example of the Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit pushing hard to get CCAs into exercises where they can simulate operational environments.

“This exercise was about getting the systems into the hands of the warfighter,” Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, Experimental Operations Unit commander, said in a statement. “We are focused on operating CCA outside of a traditional test environment so we can continue to learn, inform, and rapidly iterate.” 

Images released July 28 show both types of CCAs landing at Creech on July 21 and 22, being loaded with inert air-to-air missiles, and refueling. Members of the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force, who have signed onto the CCA program, also observed.

During the exercise, the CCAs “generated multiple sorties demonstrating reliability and extended range; integrated with manned platforms in the local airspace to project power across distributed battlefields; and simulated scenarios that will inform future requirements for the platform,” according to an Air Force release.

While the Air Force did not specify what manned aircraft integrated with the CCAs, the service has previously described experiments involving the F-35, F-22, and F-15EX.

Creech hosts many of the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft units and is located close to the massive Nevada Test and Training Range, where many Air Force units regularly train. But the base itself is relatively isolated, making it well-suited to test how CCAs fit with the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept.

ACE involves units and aircraft dispersing from large central hubs to operate from smaller or more remote air bases. Experts have said managing the logistics of CCAs in the field will be key to their operational effectiveness. The Experimental Ops Unit tested ACE concepts for CCA drones in an April exercise at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., but that exercise only involved Anduril’s YFQ-44A.

Since then, the EOU flew another CCA drone, the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, in the large-scale Valiant Shield exercise in the Pacific, and Jensen has said he hopes to fly more in the Air Force’s signature Red Flag exercise out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, not far from Creech.