The Future of Air Combat

The Loyal Wingman concept has taken a major step toward reality as Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works pulled off an aerial demonstration where a 5th-generation F-22 Raptor interceptor took command of a drone for the first time.

In recent years, the US Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Family of Systems initiative in general and its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program specifically have been making great strides toward a whole new field of air combat tactics – not to mention addressing a major problem vexing fighter plane development.

There was a time when fighter planes were relatively cheap, could be developed in a matter of months, and even a modest air force could operate wings with thousands of aircraft. However, as technology has advanced, fighters have become slow to develop and expensive to build. In fact, it was once estimated that if something wasn’t done to find a solution to rising costs, the United States could end up with only one fighter plane by 2054.

That’s not one type of fighter plane. That’s one plane in total.

The CCA program is part of the effort to get things under control. It’s estimated that an autonomous ‘loyal wingman’ drone will cost only a third as much as a conventional fighter to build and operate. Not only that, they could be sent on missions that would today be prohibitive because of the risk of losing an expensive plane – not to mention its pilot.

The advantages of such fighter drones is such that the Air Force is committed to buying 1,000 CCAs to be paired with 500 5th- and 6th-generation manned fighters. These aircraft would not only have the flight performance of a conventional fighter, their AI systems would make them autonomous. This would allow the human pilot to act as a mission commander, with the drones flying themselves and even making their own decisions as to how to carry out their orders, as well as teaming with other drones and the human.

The program has advanced to the point where a major milestone was achieved on November 19, 2025 when Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works development branch in California successfully linked an F-22 and a CCA. For the demonstration, the company focused on its Pilot Vehicle Interface (PVI), which allowed the F-22 pilot to issue mission commands and control the drone using an intuitive cockpit interface. This wasn’t a human “in-the-loop” control, where the human approves every action, but an “on-the-loop” managing situation, where they acted as a supervisor with the ability to intervene if or when necessary.

Considering that this involves a pilot who was also flying a fighter capable of reaching Mach 2.2 and the scale of the demonstration is evident.

“This effort represents Skunk Works driving a breakthrough in air combat capability, where single-seat aircraft command and control drones with simple and intuitive interfaces in the cockpit,” said OJ Sanchez, vice president and general manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

Source: Lockheed Martin