General Atomics advanced CCA YFQ-42A ‘loyal wingman’ drone completes first test flight
August 29, 2025
The USAF’s loyal wingman drone program, officially known as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, reached another milestone as the General Atomics YFQ-42A prototype took flight for the first time. The Air Force is hoping this will transform the way it fights, starting from the end of the decade.
General Atomics YFQ-42A prototype’s maiden flight
The first General Atomics YFQ-42A test flight comes less than two years after the program launched, and it heralds a “paradigm shift” in how the USAF acquires its new weapon systems. This drone is also to be built in Germany for European air forces.
The prototype test flight collected data on the platform’s airworthiness, flight autonomy, and mission system integration. The future of air combat is seen as a partnership between crewed and uncrewed systems.
The development of these loyal wingman drones is progressing at a rapid pace, with new milestones being crossed regularly. For example, Beehive Industries has revealed it can 3D print critical components for its Rampart engine developed for the CCA program.
The US Air Force says that CCA platforms will receive developmental testing, independent evaluations at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and operational assessments by the Experimental Operations Unit at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Today's successful flight of the YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) by @GenAtomics_ASI for the @usairforce shows what is possible when innovative acquisition meets motivated industry! (1/2) pic.twitter.com/XpRRj9Zuvv
— Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (@SecAFOfficial) August 27, 2025
The Increment 1 production decision is now expected in FY 2026. The Air Force is expected to purchase over 1,000 CCAs, and it is unclear if it will select just one type or multiple types of advanced combat drones. The Air Force is planning “rapid transition of combat power” after it receives the first production examples.
General Atomics and Anduril lead in the CCA program
In 2024, the Air Force selected Anduril Industries and General Atomics to develop production-representative prototypes for the CCA program after being impressed with their demonstrators. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman also competed, but were eliminated.
General Atomics says the YFQ-42A is focused on air-to-air semi-automous operation and is based on the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) demonstrator flown in 2024. It adds that the aircraft has been trained across more than five years of flight testing using the company’s MQ-20 Avenger advanced drone.
Anduril’s Fury (designated YFQ-44) is the other aircraft selected by the Air Force. Andruil says it is a high-performance, multi-mission group 5 autonomous air vehicle designed for the “high-end fight.”
YFQ-42A collaborative combat aircraft represents decades of experience and innovation in uncrewed jet-powered technology. Enabled by GA-ASI’s expertise in advanced autonomy, control systems and human-machine interfaces, #YFQ42A is the future of air superiority.
— General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) (@GenAtomics_ASI) July 24, 2025
Read more:… pic.twitter.com/9nejm0kTut
It doesn’t appear the Fury is flying yet, and Anduril doesn’t provide much information about it on its website, although it does say it makes use of its Lattice open software platform. In 2023, The War Zone reported that the aircraft can fly at Mach 0.95, operate at up to 50,000 feet, and pull a maximum of 9 g.
Advancing the Next Generational Air Dominance Family of Systems (NGAD)
Two of the United States Air Force’s top priorities are rapidly bringing the Boeing F-47 next-generation fighter jet into service and advancing the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.
Before receiving its official F-47 designation, the sixth-generation fighter jet was popularly called NGAD for the Next Generation Air Dominance program. While that was useful in short-hand, the NGAD program also includes both the crewed fighter and the uncrewed CCAs.
This is in contrast to the UK’s GCAP/Tempest program, where the drone component is separate and the UK is looking at purchasing a foreign advanced combat drone (like Turkey’s new Kızılelma combat drone) to operate with its new advanced fighter.
