SIMI VALLEY, California—The U.S. Air Force has already awarded companies contracts to start work on Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) ahead of the program’s official new start under the fiscal 2024 budget, as service leaders continue to lament an inability to get timely funding for top priorities.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall tells Aviation Week at the Reagan National Defense Forum here that “We have some CCA prospective contractors on contract already, but we need the ’24 money.”

The service’s fiscal 2024 budget request includes about $500 million to start work on CCAs, with that number growing to about $6.375 billion over the next five years. Kendall says the service will begin fielding aircraft by the end of that period. The CCA effort is part of Kendall’s broader series of priorities, called operational imperatives. This includes programs such as the Advanced Battle Management System, shifting moving target engagement to space and improving the resiliency of bases. All told, the service has earmarked about $30 billion for this work. That is all contingent on Congress passing 2024 appropriations.

Congress has until Feb. 2 to avoid a government shutdown under the current short-term continuing resolution (CR). For now, the service has been able to find funding in its current coffers to get started, Kendall says.

“We were able to find a few places in ’23 where we could get some things started, or reorient some things in some cases, but the real tranche of money to start the operational imperative work starts in ’24,” he says. “And if we end up with the worst case, we don’t get anything. There’s a whole bunch of new starts in there.”

Kendall has put forward a legislative proposal to provide more flexibility, though it is not clear if it has enough support on Capitol Hill. The idea would allow the Air Force to start new programs up to a preliminary design review without congressional approval, allowing the service to move more quickly on top priorities.

“Of all the things I’m worried about, the one that bothers me the most right now is the specter of essentially a year-long CR with sequestration in 2024. And it’s not because of any of our committees, they’re all fine. It’s the overall politics of the Congress.”

Kendall has told industry to plan for a fleet of 1,000 CCAs to fly alongside the Next Generation Air Dominance platform and F-35s. He expects them to be about one-third the cost of a $100 million F-35. The service will field the aircraft in increments, allowing it to start with more rudimentary autonomy and less capable airframes first and evolving into more capable systems.