Autonomous Collaborative Platforms and Combat Collaborative Aircraft Development | AFRL Discovery to Delivery
Air Force Research Laboratory
Video by Keith C Lewis
Jan. 5, 2026 | 1:50
The Air Force Research Laboratory played a unique and foundational role in developing autonomous collaborative platforms (ACP) and by extension, collaborative combat aircraft (CCA). AFRL played this essential role in two major ways: building and providing the technology and facilities that helped develop and enable – and - providing the leadership required to bring all this technology together and take it across the finish line.
AFRL advanced numerous technologies from the 1990s to today that were required to be able to create ACP and to develop their robust ecosystem. Technologies include autonomy of various types, such as flight autonomy and mission autonomy, rapid manufacturing, low-cost airframes, human-machine interfaces, human-machine teaming, collision avoidance technologies, communications and sensors, just to name a few. Moreover, AFRL bought down risk that outside partners either would not or could not take.
AFRL leadership also played a major factor in being able to create ACP by partnering with and guiding industry, engaging with war fighters, collaborating with acquirers, and working with other outside partners. All of these efforts together permitted AFRL to create and transition this revolutionary new capability known as Autonomous Collaborative Platforms.
Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities. More