WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works will build four more Vectis aircraft, bringing its planned prototype total to five.
  • The first Vectis flight remains scheduled for the end of 2027.
  • Vectis is designed to operate alone or alongside crewed fighters such as the F-35.
  • Lockheed has not announced a Vectis customer, contract or unit price.

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works plans to build four additional Vectis uncrewed aircraft beyond the prototype already under construction, raising the company’s planned total to five.

Lockheed announced the expansion Monday and said the first aircraft remains expected to fly by the end of 2027.

The company also publicly displayed a full scale Vectis model for the first time Monday.

The aircraft appeared at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, according to Lockheed.

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Ron Fehlen, vice president and general manager of Skunk Works, said discussions with potential domestic and international customers helped drive the decision to invest in four more aircraft.

“Domestic and international customer conversations, coupled with our internal analysis, continue to reinforce the urgent need for a survivable, autonomous and multi-mission capability,” Fehlen said in a statement.

“We’re leaning into that demand, making a strategic investment to accelerate Vectis’ progress and maturity through an additional four vehicles.”

Vectis is a Group 5 collaborative combat aircraft designed to operate alone or beside crewed fighters such as the F-35.

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Lockheed has described the aircraft as a platform for precision strike, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance targeting, electronic warfare and counter-air missions.

Lockheed unveiled Vectis in September 2025 and has pitched the aircraft to United States and allied militaries.

The company says it is funding the effort internally, rather than developing the aircraft under an announced customer contract.

The company has not linked Vectis to a specific competition. Lockheed was not selected to build aircraft for the first increment of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, commonly called CCA.

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The Air Force cleared CCA Increment 1 for production in June and awarded aircraft contracts to General Atomics and Anduril.

Lockheed Expands Vectis Drone Push with Four More Aircraft as 2027 Flight Stays on Target
Image Credit: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
Rendering of the Vectis CCA

Lockheed did secure one of six positions in a vendor pool eligible to compete for work on the autonomy software that will fly the Increment 1 aircraft.

Lockheed says the Vectis development team moved rapidly during the aircraft’s early design work.

According to the company, the team progressed from the first drawing to wind tunnel testing in less than two months and completed an initial digital build within six months.

The company said in December that the first Vectis prototype will use a Williams International FJ44-4 commercial turbofan. That engine produces more than 3,600 pounds of thrust, and Lockheed said choosing a proven engine would help accelerate the development schedule.

The Air Force, meanwhile, is still finalizing its requirements for CCA Increment 2.

The service has not announced how Vectis might fit into that work, while Lockheed continues presenting the aircraft as an internally funded platform for domestic and international opportunities.

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Col. Timothy Helfrich, the Air Force’s portfolio acquisition executive for fighters and advanced aircraft, discussed Increment 2 with reporters at the Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days in July. He said the concept refinement phase involving nine unnamed vendors had about 10 months remaining.

Helfrich also said the Air Force could advance as many as six designs into prototyping after the concept refinement phase.

Companies not currently participating in that phase could potentially enter the process later, according to his remarks.

Skunk Works spokesman Shane Nicholson was asked whether Lockheed was one of the nine companies.

Nicholson said Vectis remains an internally funded effort aimed at domestic and international markets, adding that “specific questions about CCA Increment 2 are best addressed by the U.S. Air Force.”

For now, Lockheed has not announced a customer, contract or unit price for Vectis. Its decision to build four additional aircraft nevertheless expands the planned prototype inventory while leaving the first flight schedule unchanged at the end of 2027.

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