In Berlin Four CCAs Face Off for Germany

Four combat drones lined up at the Berlin Air Show this week, each chasing the same prize: the contract to fly as Germany’s robotic wingman by 2029.

The ILA 2026 show, running June 10 to 12, turned into an open audition for the Luftwaffe, with German startups and American giants parking their unmanned fighters side by side. The deadline hanging over all of it is a warning that Russia could be ready to strike NATO by the end of the decade.

What Germany Is Shopping For

Germany wants a Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, the loyal-wingman concept where an uncrewed jet flies alongside a piloted fighter and carries extra sensors, weapons, or jammers. The Luftwaffe’s stated goal is to field one by 2029.

That date is not arbitrary. Germany’s defense minister has warned that Russia could be ready to attack NATO by 2029, and the CCA is meant to be flying before that window opens.

This is also a stopgap question. Germany is already tied into FCAS, the Franco-German-Spanish program for a sixth-generation fighter, but that jet is a 2040s proposition. A CCA fielded by 2029 fills the gap long before FCAS arrives, which is why near-ready designs have an opening here.

For now the government is staying quiet on specifics. The German Ministry of Defense said it cannot comment on procurement before parliament deliberates. That leaves the contractors to make their case in public, which is exactly what Berlin became this week.

The Four Contenders

Helsing, a German defense-AI startup, parked its CA-1 Europa near the entrance of the show. The company used Berlin to split the design into two roles: the CA-1KA for kinetic strike and a brand-new CA-1EA built for electronic attack, pitched as a European answer to the EA-18G Growler. Helsing says the kinetic version targets a first flight in early 2027.

Boeing brought the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, teamed with German industrial heavyweight Rheinmetall. The version offered to Germany stretches the wingspan by 25 percent and adds roughly 2,000 pounds (907 kg) of fuel, stores, and payload, enough to carry two AMRAAM missiles or four small-diameter bombs internally. The program has logged more than 200 flight hours.

Airbus pulled the cover off the U760 Ravenstorm, a full-scale model shown publicly for the first time. Airbus is working with American firm Kratos and has agreed to buy two XQ-58A Valkyrie drones to modify for European use.

General Atomics parked a full-size Gambit, part of the same family as the YFQ-42A the company is building for the US Air Force’s CCA program. Its spokesman, C. Mark Brinkely, did not undersell it. He called it the most advanced CCA in the world and said it needs no extra blocks of development to compete.

Local Steel vs American Imports

Two of the four bids wave a German flag, and in a national procurement that counts. Helsing is homegrown, and Boeing’s Ghost Bat arrives bolted to Rheinmetall, the country’s largest arms maker. Build-it-here is a powerful pitch when the worry is a war on the continent.

The other two lean American. Airbus, despite its European pedigree, is building Ravenstorm with Kratos and its Valkyrie. General Atomics is offering a drone from the same Gambit line the US Air Force already picked. Both bring proven hardware, but neither puts the factory on German soil the way Rheinmetall can.

General Atomics is not guessing at the format. The US Air Force already picked its YFQ-42A, alongside Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury, in the first round of America’s own CCA program. That head start is the whole pitch: a drone a major air force has already vetted.

Rheinmetall’s Armin Papperger put the clock front and center. If Germany wants the aircraft by 2029, he said, production has to start by at least next year.

The 2029 Clock

As Breaking Defense reported, everything here runs on that one number. Germany’s defense minister has warned Russia could be ready to attack NATO by 2029, and the CCA is supposed to be in service before that line.

The concept itself is no longer theoretical. Ukraine turned cheap drones into a daily weapon of war, and the lesson Europe drew is that uncrewed aircraft are not a side experiment but a core of the next fight. A CCA flying with a Eurofighter or an F-35 multiplies what one pilot can do, and it does it without risking a second crew.

Truth be told, I don’t enjoy writing stories about how fast drone tech is moving when the tech in question is for war. The last time I covered a piece on swarms of drones that think for themselves, it left me anxious for days. But pretending these stories don’t exist won’t make them go away.

What Germany has not done is choose. The defense ministry won’t discuss procurement until parliament weighs in, so for now the jets sit on display, waiting for a decision the calendar is pushing hard.

DroneXL’s Take

Ukraine has quietly turned into the reference point for the rest of the world on drone warfare, the place where the doctrine gets written and where other militaries now send people to learn. The CCA is the next big market in air defense, and four very different bets just lined up in Berlin to chase it. Helsing flies a German flag.

Boeing flies its Ghost Bat with Rheinmetall, which means a factory on German soil. The other two are American hardware in European clothing, already vetted in real procurement. So the question that hangs over all of it is the one nobody on stage will answer out loud: when the worry is a war on your own continent, does industrial sovereignty win, or does the drone that already passed someone else’s test?

Photo credit: Breaking Defense