Lockheed Skunk Works, the Vectis Shadow, and the Race for the Loyal Wingman

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has released shadowy imagery that military aviation analysts say is consistent with published design renders of an aircraft called Vectis - a Group 5 loyal wingman candidate positioned for the Air Force’s next round of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. No formal announcement has been made as of this reporting, but Lockheed has indicated one is coming. Given the Skunk Works’ history of deliberate, strategic disclosure, that signal is worth taking seriously.

What Is the Collaborative Combat Aircraft Program?

The CCA program is the U.S. Air Force’s effort to develop autonomous unmanned aircraft that fly alongside manned fighters - not as surveillance platforms, but as combat teammates. The concept, commonly called the loyal wingman, pairs an autonomous aircraft with a pilot in an F-22 or F-35 to multiply that pilot’s effectiveness. The unmanned aircraft can carry weapons, sensors, or electronic warfare equipment, and can absorb risk the manned platform shouldn’t take.

The Air Force structured the program into increments. Increment 1, already underway, selected two companies: Anduril Industries, with the YFQ-44 Fury, and General Atomics, with the YFQ-42. Both are Group 3 class aircraft - smaller, shorter-range designs intended to build operational doctrine and real-world experience with autonomous wingmen before scaling up.

Why Lockheed Lost Increment 1 - and Why That Backdrop Matters

Lockheed Martin bid on Increment 1 and was not selected. That context is essential to reading the Vectis tease correctly. This is the company behind the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II - programs that didn’t refine existing concepts so much as redefine what was aeronautically possible. Being passed over for the first round of the loyal wingman competition was notable.

Vectis is Lockheed’s answer. The teaser imagery, reported by The Aviationist, shows a silhouette that analysts describe as consistent with publicly available Vectis design renders. No confirmed photograph exists, no press conference has been held - only a deliberate tease from a division that has been executing deliberate teases for eight decades.

What We Know About Vectis

Based on published design information, Vectis is a Group 5 aircraft - the top tier of the Department of Defense’s unmanned aircraft classification system. Group 5 means large, high-altitude, and high-speed. Think Global Hawk in terms of operational envelope, but built for an entirely different mission. This is not an ISR platform that orbits a battlefield for 20 hours. It’s a combat aircraft designed to fight in contested airspace against near-peer adversaries alongside fifth-generation fighters.

Group 5 also means substantially more expensive, substantially more capable, and substantially more technologically demanding than the Increment 1 designs.

Where Vectis Fits: Increment 2 and the Group 5 Race

The Air Force’s Increment 2 - the next round of the CCA competition - is specifically seeking Group 5 capability. That’s where Vectis slots in. If Lockheed is signaling an announcement now, the reasonable interpretation is that they’re positioning for Increment 2, telling the acquisition community that the Skunk Works has hardware - or something close to it - and intends to compete.

The timing carries weight. The defense budget environment is under scrutiny, and the Department of Defense is being pushed to demonstrate value and move programs efficiently. A well-timed Skunk Works tease isn’t just marketing. It’s a signal that Lockheed is serious, funded, and ready.

The Strategic Pressure Driving This Program

The loyal wingman concept exists at an elevated urgency because the threat picture has changed. China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force has invested heavily in advanced fighters and its own unmanned combat aircraft programs. The calculus of air combat over the Taiwan Strait and across the western Pacific is fundamentally different than it was a decade ago.

The Air Force also faces a pilot shortage and a finite number of fifth-generation aircraft. The CCA program is, at its core, a way to extend the combat power of existing assets and pilots - now - without waiting a decade for new manned airframes. That strategic pressure is why Lockheed, despite losing Increment 1, has every incentive to stay in the competition.

The Loyal Wingman Is Already Real

This isn’t a concept living on briefing slides. Australia’s Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat, developed under the Airpower Teaming System program, has been flying for several years. It’s real, it’s operational, and it has directly informed much of what the U.S. Air Force is now pursuing. The United Kingdom is developing its own variant. The concept has left the drawing board - what remains is scaling it and hardening the software.

That last point matters. The challenge with autonomous combat aircraft was never the airframe. Aerodynamics are well-understood. What’s hard is the decision architecture: At what point does the autonomous aircraft act independently when it can’t reach the manned platform? How does it communicate in a communications-denied, electronic warfare environment? How do you ensure an aircraft carrying weapons doesn’t become a liability when the datalink is jammed or spoofed?

These are the reasons the Air Force began with smaller, simpler Increment 1 designs. Operational experience has to precede scale.

The Name Vectis

Vectis is a Latin word. It means lever. Whether intentional or coincidental, a loyal wingman is by definition a force multiplier - a lever - for the pilot flying alongside it. The pilot isn’t just managing their own aircraft anymore. They’re commanding a team, extending their sensor picture, their weapons options, their reach across contested airspace.

Why This Matters for Military Pilots

The CCA program represents a fundamental shift in the pilot’s role - not a reduction of it, but an expansion. The concept is not that autonomous aircraft replace pilots. It’s that they allow pilots to do more, cover more airspace, and take on more complex missions without proportionally increasing cockpit numbers. For the operational pilot flying one of these missions, the mental model changes entirely. Managing a team is a different skill set than managing an aircraft. It requires new training, new tactics, and new communication protocols. Those requirements are coming regardless of which company wins Increment 2.

For the broader aviation community, the technology proven in programs like CCA doesn’t remain classified indefinitely. Autonomous systems, sense-and-avoid architectures, and advanced flight management software have a history of migrating into the wider aviation ecosystem - not quickly, not directly, but eventually.

Key Takeaways

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works released teaser imagery analysts say is consistent with Vectis, a Group 5 loyal wingman design, with a formal announcement pending.
Vectis targets Increment 2 of the Air Force’s CCA program, which specifically seeks large, high-speed, combat-capable autonomous aircraft for contested airspace.
Lockheed was not selected for Increment 1, which went to Anduril (YFQ-44 Fury) and General Atomics (YFQ-42); Vectis is their return to the competition.
The loyal wingman concept is already operational - Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat has been flying for years and has directly shaped U.S. Air Force doctrine.
For military pilots, CCA represents an expansion of the pilot’s role, not a replacement - but it demands new tactics, training, and a fundamentally different mental model of command.