Dutch State Secretary Gijs Tuinman signed a Letter of Intent in Washington on October 16, formalizing his Country's entry into the USAF's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, with the aim of quickly deploying unmanned aircraft to support the F-35As.

It is not yet clear at this time what firm commitments the Netherlands signed up to, particularly whether a budget has already been allocated or if it is currently in a mere observer position. However, Tuinman stated that CCA systems will "soon" be able to support the Dutch F-35s with "additional sensors and weapons."

The USAF, as we know, is starting flight testing of the first 2 CCAs, selected as part of Increment 1 of its program. The two aircraft, the General Atomics YFQ-42A and the Anduril YFQ-44A, are both based at Beale Air Force Base in California and, as their designation indicates, are intended as fighters, focused on providing additional air-to-air missiles to the manned fighters they will support.

The Increment 2 phase of the CCA program is scheduled to begin in the near future as well, with the possible selection of additional competing designs and an expansion of missions and capabilities.

The Netherlands are actually the second country to express interest in the CCA, as just a few days ago Denmark also announced its intention to acquire a similar capability to support its own fleet of F-35A aircraft, which will also be expanded with the purchase of 16 additional aircraft.

For the Netherlands, participation in the CCA program represents “an opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and international collaboration” in a technological field considered essential and assured to grow even further in size and importance in the future.

On the same day, the Netherlands also announced in parallel that they agreed a partnership with General Atomics - Aeronautical Systems to develop and produce "small" UAS for ISR tasks, with the new aircraft to  be used within NATO and also supplied to Ukraine.

The new aircraft is expected to fly before the end of the year, with low-rate production starting in both the USA and the Netherlands in the new year, with the intention of ensuring the possibility of rapidly scaling up to mass production. In the Netherlands, production will be entrusted to VDL Defentec, a company specializing in the development and production of vehicles, both military and civilian, for special applications. GA-ASI will support the growth of UAS production capacity.

The new aircraft, which has not yet been revealed, will be at least partially modular and is described as being capable of carrying "a range" of different payloads and operational capabilities.

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