Assault Support Transformation: A Discussion with MAG-16 Commanders
Marine Aircraft Group 16 commanders, gathered during exercise Steel Knight at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar,…
Read More »Guam and the Marianas: Engineering Resilience Through Security Webs, Deterrence Webs, and Kill Webs
Guam’s transformation from vulnerable forward base to distributed network hub represents a shift in defense thinking…
Read More »From Strategy to Diplomacy: Colby’s Seoul Speech and the Operationalization of Flexible Realism
Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby’s January 26 remarks at Seoul’s Sejong Institute represent…
Read More »The Osprey Nacelle Revolution: How Operators and Industry Solved a Crisis That Washington Never Saw Coming
When you spend enough time with maintainers in the fleet rather than briefing officers in the…
Read More »The Anarchy of the Moment: Australia’s Race Between Military Transformation and Strategic Vulnerability
Australia faces a strategic paradox that defines its defense transformation in the 2020s: the Australian Defence…
Read More »Italy’s Strategic Leap: Adding a F-35 Training Hub to Their Training Capabilities
Italy’s recent approval to invest €112.6 million in establishing the Lightning Training Center at Trapani-Birgi Air…
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Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) have moved in just a few years from a conceptual “loyal wingman” idea to concrete flight testing, down‑selects, and multi‑service adoption, with 2025–2026 shaping up as the period where the United States proves whether it can actually field affordable combat mass at speed. Across the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and now the Army, CCAs are evolving into a family of large, jet‑powered uncrewed systems, tightly linked to manned platforms and backed by a growing budget, a more incremental acquisition strategy, and intensive experimentation with autonomy and manned‑unmanned teaming. The U.S. Air Force remains the pacing service in the United States for CCA development, having launched the first formal program in 2023 and moved it into early operational prototyping during 2025. In August 2025,...