Are unmanned planes coming to Northern California air force base?

Jake Goodrick
The Sacramento Bee
(TNS)

As the U.S. Air Force looks to a new generation of unmanned aircraft to accompany its fighter jets into the future, Yuba-Sutter officials see an opportunity to bring the early-stage mission to their local Air Force base.

Yuba-Sutter officials have begun advocating for the Air Force to choose Yuba County’s Beale Air Force Base, which has a longstanding foothold in the area’s economy and workforce, to house its new Collaborative Combat Aircraft mission.

The mission plans to use autonomous planes that would fly alongside manned fighter jets, effectively flanking pilots as largely automated wingmen in the sky.

The Air Force is considering Beale for the new mission, according to a Yuba City report, and representatives for U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, have sought backing from local communities and other California delegates.

Yuba City Mayor Shon Harris wrote a letter in support of bringing the Air Force’s new autonomous planes to Beale, which City Council members approved earlier this month, and Sutter County officials have similar plans to support bringing the project local, said Steve Smith, Sutter County administrator.

The base is the largest employer in Yuba County and brings greater than an estimated $600 million annually into the local economy, based on past economic and media reports.

“If the mission were to come, then you’re talking about thousands of jobs,” said Mark Spannagel, chief of staff for LaMalfa. “You’re talking about entire support industries that are coming to support a mission like this.”

Local officials tout the base’s available hangar space, access to energy sources, established weapons load facility and existing partnership with the U.S. Navy’s Fallon Range Training Complex in Nevada. The base’s location on the West Coast and proximity to the Pacific Rim may also hold strategic value for the Air Force.

Officials also see the new mission as a chance to maintain Beale’s place in the local economy as the Air Force phases away from its U-2 Dragon Lady, a spy plane long flown from Beale.

“We have to augment with a number of different missions. And it’s hard, it’s not easy,” said Janice Nall, who chairs the Beale Military Liaison Council board. “Everyone’s fighting for that next new plane, that next generation.”

Nall has been with the nonprofit that supports the base for about 20 years. She said that as of now, which bases most actively competing with Beale to house the new Air Force mission is not classified, nor is it entirely clear.

U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., has pushed for the Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota to receive a collaborative combat aircraft mission, and invited Palmer Luckey, a tech billionaire who founded Anduril Industries — one of two companies contracted to build unmanned aircraft for the program — to the UAS Summit in Grand Forks last week, according to a news release. The event focuses on the unmanned aircraft systems industry and technology.

Beale Air Force Base has more than 4,500 military personnel, which, when accounting for other people and businesses the base attracts, has significant benefits for the local economies of Sutter and Yuba counties, local officials have said.

“It’s vital that anytime that Beale is considered for a mission that the community writ large steps up and supports it with everything they’ve got because these things are highly competitive processes,” said Scott Powell, Sutter County economic development director.

Future of surveillance planes

Primarily an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance installation of the Air Force, Beale continues to fly U-2 Dragon Lady and T-38 Talon aircraft from its base. But with the U-2 set for retirement in the near future, the identity of the base and the makeup of its workforce is in question.

The U-2 was slated for retirement in 2026, but that timeline may be delayed based on actions by Congress that would prolong the life of the longstanding surveillance planes.

“We don’t envision that CCAs will replace the U-2s, but will augment and be an additional mission,” Nall said. “We continue to advocate for a mission that will be equal in terms of manpower, economic impact to the community, those kinds of things. But as the Air Force gets smaller, and the budget gets tougher, the missions are very competitive among installations nationwide.”

What’s the mission?

The new Air Force program comes as part of its pivot to a new generation of aircraft.

Moving toward autonomous drone wingman planes to accompany fighter jets — still manned by pilots — could provide a more expansive fleet of aircraft at a lower cost. Air Force officials have said that cheaper, unmanned — thus more expendable — planes could bring new tactical advantages to warfare.

With fewer planes, the new drone wingmen could more affordably expand the Air Force’s fleet while supplementing the manned fighter planes that stay in rotation.

The autonomous wingmen, as talked about now, would have artificial intelligence features while maintaining some degree of human control.

Originally the Air Force expected a single fighter plane controlling a small number of wingman drones, but the size and function of that accompanying fleet could change. The extent to which pilots flying beside the drone planes would interact with and control the planes remains unclear as development continues.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said at a Congress subcommittee hearing in April that he expected the first 100 units built and delivered by the end of the decade while continuing to build on that number, Air and Space Forces Magazine reported. He said he expects each to cost about $25 million to $30 million, which is about a third of the cost of an F-35 fighter jet.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel said at an Air and Space Forces Association conference in September that the unmanned aircraft could take more risks than one that’s piloted and could create targeting dilemmas for adversaries while in battle.

“The unique advantages that the price point creates for us, and the fact that it doesn’t have a person in it, you can increase this risk factor which just opens up a whole bunch when it comes to tactics, operational approach and creating dilemmas for the adversary,” Kunkel said.

The Air Force in April announced that it will continue funding Anduril and General Atomics to design, manufacture and test aircraft for the program, sticking with the two companies out of an original field that included military stalwarts Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

The Air Force has said it expects to make a decision on production for its automated planes at the beginning of fiscal year 2026 and “field a fully operational capability before the end of the decade,” according to an Air Force news release.

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