OCTOBER 2024
Cockpit or Command
Center?
C2 Options for Collaborative Combat Aircraft
Benjamin Jensen, Christopher “Wyatt” Koeltzow, Allen Agnes, and Eric Williams
1
In the future…
• Networks of manned and unmanned aircra will command the skies. These teams will
be increasingly modular and optimized for counterair, interdiction, and close air support
missions.
• A mix of war games, Red Flag exercises, and dynamic home station simulations
will test the ability of airmen—on the ground and in the skies—to execute mission
command through networks of unmanned aircra and respond to rapid changes in the
threat environment. Together, these experiments will help guide not just airpower, but the
entire joint planning and targeting cycle, into an era of algorithmic warfare.
Introduction
There is a new theory of airpower on the horizon. Over the next five years, the U.S. Air Force
(USAF) plans to invest billions in research and development for a force of over 1,000
collaborative combat aircra (CCA). The vision includes working with allies and partners
to pair fourth- and fih-generation aircra with versatile unmanned systems, creating aerial
networks that can rapidly adapt to changes in the battlespace. Multiple reports and war games
portend a new future in which unmanned systems will replace an aging, expensive manned
aircra and create entirely new mission profiles optimized for peer conflict. The fate of these
unmanned systems is critical, given both the Air Force’s decision in July 2024 to reevaluate its
sixth-generation aircra and the emergence of new Air Task Forces.
1 The authors would like to thank the following individuals for earlier review comments: David Blair (Colonel, USAF),
Matthew Strohmeyer (Colonel, USAF), Alex Chesney (Major, USAF), and Josh Williams (Major, USAF).
ON FUTURE
WAR
