{"id":39798,"date":"2026-06-19T12:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/39798\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T12:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:51:12","slug":"cca-wingmen-unmanned-aircraft-unveiled-at-berlin-airshow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/39798\/","title":{"rendered":"CCA ‘wingmen’ unmanned aircraft unveiled at Berlin airshow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several defense firms unveiled new \u2018wingmen\u2019 aircraft designed to accompany fighter jets at the ILA Berlin<\/a> airshow as European nations begin to rearm.<\/p>\n

As conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue, the US and European countries have increased their focus on developing and procuring unmanned AI-powered drones<\/a> to complement their fighter jets and carry extra sensors, jammers, and weapons.<\/p>\n

At ILA Berlin, the world\u2019s oldest airshow and one of the most important aerospace trade fairs, several defense firms unveiled their latest designs to Western militaries last week.<\/p>\n

Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), also known as wingman aircraft, range in size from small interceptors to planes. They fly in what is known as a \u201cloyal wingman\u201d system to accompany manned fighter jets such as the F-35.<\/p>\n

Unlike traditional military drones that are remotely operated by human crews for isolated surveillance, Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) are autonomous, jet-powered “wingmen” driven by artificial intelligence to fly in direct, high-speed combat formations alongside human fighter pilots.<\/p>\n

\"AA BOEING MQ-28 Ghost Bat unmanned combat aerial vehicle under development by Boeing Australia at the opening day of the International Aerospace Exhibition ILA at Schoenefeld Airport in Berlin, Germany, June 10, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/Axel Schmidt\/File Photo)<\/p>\n

Interest in the technology comes as European powers debate over building their own sovereign defense capabilities that are less reliant on the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe AI agent, of course, the brain of these systems, needs to be controlled in a sovereign fashion,\u201d Stephanie Lingmann, head of air domain at the German startup Helsing, told Reuters at the airshow.<\/p>\n

The war in Ukraine<\/a> has demonstrated how electronic warfare can be as impactful as kinetic weapons systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boeing Australia, Rheinmetall unveil new Collaborative Combat Aircraft<\/p>\n

Boeing Australia and German defense contractor Rheinmetall collaborated to build their own CCA, the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, which they unveiled at the Berlin<\/a> airshow.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can go out ahead of crewed platforms, provide situational awareness, analyze data, it can fuse that data and provide decision-making quality information back to a human,\u201d the managing director for Boeing Australia, Amy List, told Reuters reporters at ILA Berlin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wingman aircraft are a relatively new technology and have not yet been seen on the battlefield. Although General Atomics says its CCA, the YFQ-42A, is ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have certainly spoken to Germany many, many times about our CCA and what there is to offer,\u201d General Atomics spokesperson C. Mark Brinkley told Breaking Defense. \u201cIt\u2019s the most advanced CCA in the world. We don\u2019t need to go to block whatever to add a weapons bay and all the rest, we\u2019re ready today.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

General Atomic\u2019s CCA is in testing and has already been selected by the US Air Force to receive funding for prototype development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several defense firms unveiled new \u2018wingmen\u2019 aircraft designed to accompany fighter jets at the ILA Berlin airshow as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9666,699,18,1000,20322,34900],"class_list":["post-39798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-aircraft","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-berlin","tag-boeing","tag-defense-tech","tag-unmanned-aircraft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}