Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works announced the Vectis — a Group-5 collaborative combat aircraft designed as a stealthy, interoperable unmanned wingman to collaborate closely with crewed fighters — at the 2025 Air, Space & Cyber Conference. The platform is intended to perform a range of contested-space missions including precision strike, electronic warfare, and ISR, and is being developed on Skunk Works’ own funding to accelerate build and flight-test activity within a two-year horizon. Unlike attritable “disposable” wingmen, Vectis is framed as a survivable, re-usable combat asset engineered to operate inside high-threat environments. Lockheed says the aircraft will feature a fully open mission architecture compatible with Department of Defense reference models, enabling quick payload swaps, multi-vendor integration, and adherence to common control standards for teaming with legacy fighters and allied systems. The company has reportedly already ordered components and commenced assembly activity, demonstrating an intent to compress schedule and present tangible capability ahead of formal program awards. Skunk Works’ pitch to the Air Force and international partners is two-fold: deliver a high-end, stealthy CCA that can be mission-tailored, and do it quickly by leveraging decades of classified aircraft design expertise and modern digital engineering practices. If Skunk Works meets the self-imposed timeline, Vectis could become a leading contender in the competitive market for collaborative combat aircraft — offering a blend of survivability, modularity, and rapid integration with existing air fleets that could reshape future airpower concepts and allied procurement choices.
