A United States Air Force (USAF) Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor pilot successfully executed airborne tactical command and in-flight control of an Anduril Industries YFQ-44A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) during a flight test in early October 2026.

The Department of the Air Force announced the milestone in an October 16, 2026, press release. The event marks the first time a crewed fighter has directed a semi-autonomous uncrewed wingman in flight, validating the “airborne quarterback” concept central to the military branch’s future air combat strategy.

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Validating the airborne quarterback concept

The flight test involved personnel from the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base in California and the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The effort also integrated teams from the 309th Software Engineering Group, the Experimental Operations Unit, the F-22 System Program Office, and the CCA Software Autonomy and Teaming Branch. During the sortie, the F-22 pilot issued high-level tactical directives to the YFQ-44A, which operated semi-autonomously to execute the commands.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach stated the flight demonstrates the power of crewed-uncrewed teaming and the advantage it provides to warfighters.

“We must test often, learn fast and give commanders what they need, when they need it,” Wilsbach said in the official release.

Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink emphasized the rapid development cycle required to field these systems.

“This achievement demonstrates what is possible when we are aligned with industry on a shared imperative: delivering capability to the warfighter at unprecedented speed,” Meink said. “We are driving urgency into every part of acquisition from rapid integration and flight learning to disciplined assessment, so we can turn promising technology into combat capability at the pace the threat demands.”

The path to Increment 1 fielding

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft program is a USAF initiative designed to develop semi-autonomous uncrewed aircraft that will fly alongside crewed fighters. These include the F-22, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, and the future Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform. The F-22 Raptor serves as the threshold platform for the program, designating it as the first crewed aircraft integrated to pair with and control the drones in flight.

The YFQ-44A Fury originated with Blue Force Technologies, a drone manufacturer acquired by Anduril Industries in September 2023. The aircraft is a fighter-like uncrewed combat aerial vehicle powered by a Williams FJ44-4M turbofan engine. It is engineered to pull up to 9g and fly at speeds reaching Mach 0.95.

The October 2026 tactical control demonstration follows a series of rapid developmental milestones. Earlier in 2026, a Fury drone successfully launched an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). In September 2026, Anduril conducted tests involving the Fury flying in formation with F-35 fighters, although the crewed aircraft were not yet issuing mid-air commands during those sorties.

On September 14, 2026, the Air Force officially named the two Increment 1 CCA designs: the Anduril FQ-44 Fury and the General Atomics FQ-42 Vengeance. General Atomics serves as the other prime contractor for the first increment of the program.

Shifting air combat strategy toward affordable mass

The CCA program represents a fundamental shift in military aviation strategy. The USAF is moving toward a concept of affordable mass, pairing highly capable and expensive crewed fighters with cheaper, semi-attritable uncrewed systems.

The Department of the Air Force intends to have 500 combat-ready, semi-autonomous CCA systems in service by 2032. The overall planned fleet size for the program is projected to reach 1,000 aircraft.

AirPro News analysis

The successful integration of the F-22 Raptor with the YFQ-44A Fury marks a critical transition from theoretical doctrine to operational reality. By proving that a single pilot can manage a semi-autonomous wingman while flying a fifth-generation fighter, the USAF has cleared a major technical hurdle in the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program. We view this milestone as a strong indicator that the aggressive 2032 fielding timeline for 500 combat-ready systems remains viable. Establishing the F-22 as the threshold platform provides a mature testing environment that will likely accelerate the eventual integration of these uncrewed systems with the F-35 and the Next-Generation Air Dominance platform.

S&K Aerospace, LLC (SKA) has secured a $4.3 billion single-award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to manage the U.S. Air Forces Parts and Repair Ordering System 7 (PROS 7).

Announced in a press release on October 5, 2026, the agreement tasks the Montana-based company with providing critical supply, repair, and logistics support for non-standard and difficult-to-support items to more than 100 Foreign Military Sales (FMS) partner nations across the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy.

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Contract scope and operational details

The PROS 7 contract serves as a vital logistics bridge for international allies operating U.S.-manufactured military equipment. Through the program, S&K Aerospace will provide Commercial Buying Services (CBS) to procure parts and manage repair services for components that are no longer standard or are otherwise difficult to support through traditional supply chains.

According to the official award notice from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), the contract features a maximum ordering period of 10 years, structured as a one-year base period followed by nine one-year options. A subsequent three-year closeout period brings the expected completion date to September 30, 2039. While S&K Aerospace is headquartered in St. Ignatius, Montana, the operational work for PROS 7 will be conducted in Warner Robins, Georgia.

The contract was officially awarded on September 16, 2026, before the public announcement on October 5, 2026. Tony Amadeo, President of S&K Aerospace, credited the company’s historical performance for the successful bid.

“We had an outstanding team across B&P, Pricing, Contracts, HR, IT/IRM, Quality and our technical and operational organizations that put an enormous amount of work into PROS 7. But we also would not be here without the PROS IV and PROS V teams who have been executing this mission for more than 15 years. Their performance built the customer trust, supplier relationships and reputation that we carried into this competition. We didn’t just show up and win PROS 7 — this team earned it over a lot of years.”

Competitive acquisition and corporate background

The AFLCMC at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio managed the procurement as a two-phase competitive acquisition. Government records indicate four offers were received during the initial phase, with three advancing to the final selection round. The resulting agreement is structured primarily as a fixed-price contract, incorporating cost-type contract line item numbers for vendor-invoiced material and maintenance pass-through costs.

S&K Aerospace brings extensive institutional knowledge to the PROS 7 program, having previously managed the PROS IV and PROS V iterations over the past 15 years. The Department of Defense awarded the $4.2 billion PROS V contract to the company on November 2, 2016.

The company operates as a subsidiary of S&K Technologies, Inc., a tribally owned corporation of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) of the Flathead Nation. Revenues generated by the aerospace division and other subsidiaries are reinvested into the CSKT Tribal General Fund to support community programs and services on the reservation.

The PROS 7 award follows another major federal contract secured by the company earlier in the year. In May 2026, the Department of Defense selected S&K Aerospace as an awardee on the Contract Field Teams (CFT) Labor Augmentation Support Requirements (LASR) multiple-award IDIQ contract, a vehicle with a maximum ceiling value of $7.009 billion.

AirPro News analysis

The decision to award PROS 7 to the incumbent contractor underscores the U.S. Air Force’s prioritization of supply chain stability for its international partners. Managing non-standard and out-of-production parts requires an established network of specialized vendors and repair facilities. By retaining S&K Aerospace, the AFLCMC avoids the transition risks associated with transferring a complex, global logistics network to a new prime contractor. This continuity is particularly critical for Foreign Military Sales customers utilizing aging platforms that rely entirely on the PROS framework for sustainment.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) has initiated the second phase of a research project designed to automate hose-and-drogue mid-air refueling for uncrewed aerial vehicles. Announced on October 9, 2026, the €8 million effort brings together defense contractors and research institutes from Spain, Germany, and Belgium to solve the complex aerodynamics and control challenges of autonomous tanker operations.

The project targets a critical capability gap for future European and NATO Air Forces. By developing systems capable of coordinating multiple unmanned receivers with a single tanker simultaneously, the consortium aims to establish the technical foundation for autonomous air-to-air refueling (A4R) operations. According to the EDA, this capability is essential for ensuring interoperability among allied nations deploying next-generation combat drones.

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Advancing autonomous refueling capabilities

The second phase of the project officially advanced on October 8, 2026. The EDA outlined that the development will unfold across three distinct stages. The consortium will begin with simulated multi-aircraft refueling operations to test coordination algorithms before moving to laboratory testing utilizing robotic arms to simulate the physical connection. The final stage will involve ground and flight tests using an Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) and an experimental aircraft provided by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The engineering and testing workload is distributed among the three participating nations. Spain is represented by Airbus Defence and Space and technology firm GMV. The German contingent includes Airbus Defence and Space, the DLR, and AES Technology. Belgium’s participation involves ScioTeq and the Von Karman Institute.

Building on Phase One foundations

This new €8 million investment builds directly on the results of the project’s first phase, which the EDA launched on December 21, 2022, with a €4 million budget. The initial phase focused on proving the technical feasibility of automated hose-and-drogue refueling. This method is widely used by European air forces but is inherently more difficult to automate than rigid boom systems due to the flexibility and aerodynamic instability of the trailing hose.

During Phase One, researchers utilized an Airbus A330 MRTT tanker alongside a German Panavia Tornado and a Spanish McDonnell Douglas EF-18 Hornet. The consortium successfully developed camera-based tracking systems capable of monitoring both the drogue and the receiver aircraft. The teams also tested drogue stabilization techniques required for uncrewed receivers to make safe and reliable contact.

Airbus expands its automated refueling portfolio

Airbus Defence and Space occupies a central role in the EDA consortium, reflecting the manufacturer’s broader push into automated refueling technologies across multiple platforms. The company has independently pursued A4R capabilities through its Auto’Mate demonstrator program. That initiative previously utilized an Airbus A310 tanker and DT-25 target drones to validate formation flight and automatic contact procedures.

The EDA project aligns with parallel developments in Airbus’s crewed and uncrewed portfolios. In February 2026, Singapore became the first country to achieve full certification for Airbus’s Automatic Air-to-Air Refuelling (A3R) boom operations in both day and night conditions. Shortly after, on March 4, 2026, the EDA selected Airbus Helicopters subsidiary Survey Copter for the €1.1 million Multi Mission Unmanned Aircraft System (M2UAS) project. That contract focuses on developing a hybrid uncrewed aircraft based on the Capa-X drone, which will also be designed to accept automated in-flight refueling.

Strategic implications for European air combat

Automating air-to-air refueling for uncrewed systems is considered a mandatory capability for next-generation air combat systems. Extending the range and loiter time of uncrewed aerial vehicles without requiring human pilot intervention allows air forces to project power further and maintain persistent surveillance or strike capabilities.

Spain has positioned itself as a primary driver of this technology within Europe. The Spanish Ministry of Defence has identified air-to-air refueling as a priority within its Defence Technology and Innovation Strategy (ETID 2026), aiming to establish the country as a global leader in the sector. The Airbus A330 MRTT, which serves as the baseline tanker for these tests, has secured orders from 14 countries, cementing its position as the primary aerial refueling platform for European and allied nations.

AirPro News analysis

The transition from automated boom refueling for crewed aircraft to autonomous hose-and-drogue refueling for uncrewed systems represents a massive leap in aerodynamic and computational complexity. While rigid booms can be actively steered by a boom operator into a receiver’s receptacle, hose-and-drogue systems require the receiver aircraft to do the maneuvering. For a drone, this means processing complex wake turbulence and drogue movement in real time without human depth perception or intuition.

If the EDA consortium can successfully demonstrate multi-drone refueling from a single A330 MRTT, it will fundamentally alter the operational calculus for future European combat air systems. The ability to refuel uncrewed assets mid-air will allow loyal wingmen and autonomous combat vehicles to match the range and endurance of their crewed counterparts, removing a significant logistical bottleneck in future air combat planning.