The service wants CCAs to fly alongside aircraft like the F-35 and F-47, and autonomously carry out missions like airstrikes, recon and serving as decoy.
It's a loss of aircraft worth more than $200 million in what is becoming the most dramatic cost to the Pentagon of the military campaign against the group.
The defense budget is the place to stop the decline in the Air Force's size and capabilities and begin its rebuilding, the authors of this op-ed argue.