While the US Air Force (USAF) is attempting to fast-track the development of new uncrewed fighter jets, the US Marine Corps (USMC) is testing the ability of existing models to collaborate with manned fifth-generation fighters while in flight.
In a recent exercise known as Emerald Flag, the USMC paired Lockheed Martin F-35B stealth fighters with a Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie autonomous jet to assess the ability of the Valkyrie to collect and deliver sensor data.
“The flight focused on the use of tactical data links to enable digital communication between the XQ-58A and an airborne four-ship of F-35Bs,” said Colonel Derek Brannon on 17 October.
Brannon is a Boeing F/A-18 pilot and head of the Cunnigham Group within the office of the USMC deputy commandant for aviation.
The Emerald Flag drills at Eglin AFB in Florida, which Brannon describes as a success, built on a test flight in September which demonstrated the successful integration of the Link 16 data-communications system into the XQ-58.
Link 16 is the system used by the USA and other NATO members to facilitate secure communications between aircraft, naval ships and ground-based systems, and is seen as a capability essential to the integration of future autonomous fighters.
In the latest sortie during Emerald Flag, the USMC says a networked XQ-58 acted as a forward-deployed sensing platform, “providing critical threat targeting data” to the F-35Bs, which could then evaluate and strike identified targets.
The Pentagon calls the networking of disparate sensors and weapons platforms a “kill chain” or “kill web”. Integration of the Link 16 data communication system allowed the XQ-58 to join the web, where it contributed sensor data to multiple ground and airborne network participants, the USMC notes.
While these initial flights involved just a single autonomous platform supporting four manned fighters, that ratio will likely change significantly in the coming years.
Senior USAF officials have said they envision anywhere from four to 10 uncrewed jets, which that service calls Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), will be controlled by a single manned fighter aircraft. Some have suggested the number could eventually be even higher.
With that in mind, Lockheed says it is developing the technology to give operators of its aircraft the ability to control more complex uncrewed platforms beyond the sharing of sensor data that was demonstrated with Emerald Flag.
“We’ve developed a pod that will enable the F-35 to control CCAs,” said Lockheed chief executive James Taiclet during a quarterly earnings call on 22 October. “We have a flight control system and communication system in development that will enable that as well.”
Taiclet says that developmental system could also be converted to Lockheed’s iconic, but now ageing F-22 air dominance fighter, operated only by the USAF.
Lockheed was passed over for the first round of CCA development, but the company says it plans to modify its proposal and compete aggressively for the second increment of the programme, for which air force leaders are still developing requirements.
Much of the hope for autonomous fighter platforms is that they will not just extend friendly kill webs, but also disrupt those of adversaries.
With that in mind, Kratos has previously said it is developing a separate Valkyrie variant – the XQ-58B – for the USMC, which would be used in electronic attack and suppression of enemy air defence roles.
While the XQ-58A is currently only being used for testing and evaluation of CCA technologies and concepts, the USAF hopes to soon fly its first autonomous fighter prototypes.
The service says its first operational examples will fill an air superiority role – acting as what one air force general described as a “missile truck” for air-to-air combat.
Air force secretary Frank Kendall has said that mission will likely grow to eventually include air-to-ground strikes.
