General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.'s (GA-ASI) aircraft, the YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft has conducted flight testing in coordination with the US Air Force (USAF).
“What a great moment for the U.S. Air Force and for GA-ASI,” GA-ASI President, David Alexander, said. “It’s been our collaboration that enabled us to build and fly the YFQ-42A in just over a year. It’s an incredible achievement and I salute the Air Force for its vision and I salute our development team for delivering yet another historic first for our company.”
The YFQ-42A is GA-ASI’s newest uncrewed jet, which is focused on air-to-air semi-autonomous operation and based on the genus-species concept pioneered on the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS).
Using model-based digital engineering, GA-ASI was allegedly able to accelerate its schedule while optimising air dominance capabilities. YFQ-42’s autonomy core has been trained across more than five years of flight testing using GA-ASI’s jet-powered MQ-20 Avenger.
The GA-ASI program has focused on creating a high-rate production environment that enables USAF to reach its goal of producing more than 1,000 CCAs on an accelerated timeline. Ground testing for YFQ-42A began in May.
USAF selected GA-ASI in April 2024 to build and fly a fully production-representative Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
In March, USAF designated the aircraft the YFQ-42A, with the "Y" indicating a production-representative aircraft (“Y” will be dropped upon entering production), "F" signifying a fighter aircraft, and "Q" denoting an uncrewed aircraft.
GA-ASI has developed more than two dozen different types of uncrewed aircraft and delivered more than 1,200 units to customers, building more than 100 aircraft per year at its 5 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Poway, Calif.
According to the company, GA-ASI aircraft have amassed nearly 9 million total flight hours; more than 50 GA-ASI aircraft are aloft around the world every minute of every day.