Air Force Official: CCAs Will Be ‘Optionally Attritable’

Overview

The Air Force has clarified that Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) will be treated as "optionally attritable" rather than strictly expendable or fully attritable. Contractors should expect solicitation and program language that allows commanders to decide when CCAs are risked in high-threat missions versus retained for extended service lives, which shifts tradeoffs between low-unit cost and longer-term durability. This policy change affects platform design requirements, sustainment planning, spare-parts provisioning, and lifecycle cost estimates for both development and long-term support contracts. Companies must prepare flexible technical approaches that can demonstrate scalable survivability, modular repairability, and cost-effective sustainment options. Immediate attention is warranted to update capture strategies, technical risk assessments, and supply‑chain commitments while monitoring formal solicitations and program guidance from the Air Force and related DOD activities (including AFMC).

Immediate Actions (This Week)

• [ ] Convene a cross-functional rapid review (engineering, sustainment, capture, contracts, export compliance) to identify where current CCA proposals assume expendability vs. reuse.
• [ ] Flag and document design elements and subsystems that require trade studies for durability, modularity, and reparability (e.g., airframe, propulsion interfaces, sensor pods, modular avionics).
• [ ] Monitor for the official solicitation and program guidance from the Air Force/AFMC and vehicle channels (IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity), OTA, AFWERX); assign ownership for alerts and watch items.

Short-Term Actions (30 Days)

• [ ] Conduct lifecycle cost and sustainment trade studies that compare low-unit-cost/expendable versus reusable/long-life options and quantify impacts on production, spares, and O&M.
• [ ] Update capture materials and technical approaches to present configurable design options (attritable mode vs. reusable mode) and prepare tailored value propositions for both mission profiles.

Long-Term Actions (90+ Days)

• [ ] Modify design and production plans to support modular upgrades, rapid field repair, and scalable survivability so proposals can meet either attritable or longer-life requirements.
• [ ] Align supply-chain and sustainment contracts (including spare provisioning and depot-level repair concepts) to support mixed-use fleets and present lifecycle cost models in proposals.

Compliance Checklist

• [ ] NIST 800-171 (NIST Special Publication 800-171) — ensure Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI (Controlled Unclassified Information)) handling and system-security plans reflect program data flows for development and sustainment work.
• [ ] CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) — assess and document CMMC readiness posture for teams participating in classified or CUI-handling program activities; update gap remediation plans.
• [ ] DFARS (Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement) 252.204-7012 — prepare to flow down and demonstrate compliance with DFARS cybersecurity and CUI protection clauses in DOD solicitations and contracts.
• [ ] ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) / EAR — verify export control classifications for airframe, avionics, and autonomous subsystems and prepare licensing strategies for international support or work-sharing.

Resources

• Air Force / AFMC program guidance — monitor official releases and solicitations from the Air Force and AFMC program offices.
• DFARS 252.204-7012 — review DFARS clause language in procurement documents and flowdowns.
• NIST 800-171 / CMMC — reference these frameworks when scoping CUI protection and contractor readiness.
• ITAR / EAR — consult corporate export-compliance counsel to classify hardware and software and to plan license requirements.

Also see internal guidance:

• Secure Operations Guide (/insights/secure-operations-guide)
• CMMC Compliance Guide (/insights/cmmc-compliance-guide)
• CUI-Safe CRM Guide (/insights/cui-safe-crm-guide)

How Cabrillo Club Automates This

• Cabrillo Signals War Room — Already detected this event and delivered this briefing within minutes. The War Room continuously monitors Air Force and DOD policy statements, contract-vehicle updates (IDIQ, OTA, AFWERX), and other federal sources so subscribers are alerted immediately when an acquisition stance like "optionally attritable" appears. For this event it has captured the core policy language and routed it into your organizational incident feed so capture teams can act faster.
• Cabrillo Signals Match Engine — When program priorities shift toward configurable attritability, the Match Engine automatically rescales your opportunity pipeline. It reprioritizes opportunities by updating match scores, keyword relevance, and agency/program alignment so your capture team sees which actively tracked solicitations and vehicles (IDIQ, OTA, AFWERX) are most affected and which past proposals are reusable with limited edits.
• Cabrillo Signals Intelligence Hub — The Intelligence Hub tracks the affected agencies and NAICS scope from this event and lets you create saved searches and alerts for follow‑on solicitations. Use the Hub to monitor Air Force and AFMC releases and to get notified when solicitations appear on SAM.gov (System for Award Management) that match this event profile and your company NAICS footprint.
• Proposal Studio (Proposal OS) — Proposal Studio leverages captured policy context to generate first-draft technical approaches and compliance matrices reflecting optional-attritable design options. It pulls in your win themes and past performance to produce modular technical solution text (e.g., attritable configuration vs. reusable configuration) so proposals and whitepapers can be produced faster and consistently.
• Proposal Studio Workflow Tracker — The Workflow Tracker creates an automated 9-gate capture flow for affected opportunities: opportunity intake → technical trade studies → compliance review (cyber/export clauses) → cost model updates → proposal production → final review → submission → post-submission audit package. It routes tasks to contracts and legal for DFARS/ITAR checks, tracks supplier certifications, and produces audit-ready documentation showing how you addressed the optionally attritable requirement.

Explore these features in your Cabrillo Club workspace to align capture, engineering, and compliance teams quickly around the Air Force's optionally attritable CCA posture.