Defense News  February 13. 2024 Air Force plans to award contracts for the next round of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) — drones loaded with autonomous software that would fly themselves into battle alongside crewed fighters — in fiscal 2025. On the first increment of CCAs, the Air Force has contracts with five companies: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril. The Air Force plans to field several different types of CCAs, with different capabilities and levels of survivability, to carry out a wide range of missions including strikes, surveillance, jamming, and serving as decoys to draw enemy fire. […]