The US Air Force (USAF) has officially designated its first uncrewed fighter prototypes the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A.
Speaking at the Air and Space Forces Association Warfare Symposium in Denver, Colorado, air force chief of staff General David Allvin revealed the official designation of “FQ” for the service’s family of next generation autonomous fighters, which it calls Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
Manufacturers General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Anduril Industries were selected by the USAF in 2024 to develop the first two CCA examples, which Allvin revealed on 3 March. They will make their first flights in the coming months.
“We have two prototypes of collaborative combat aircraft that were on paper less than a couple years ago,” the four-star general notes. “They’re going to be ready to fly this summer.”
When their initial sorties launch, the General Atomics aircraft will bear the designation YFQ-42A, and Anduril’s YFA-44A. The “Y” prefix designates production-representative prototype designs being evaluated ahead of a formal programme decision.
Internally, Anduril had branded its aircraft the Fury. While General Atomics had not specified a brand name for its CCA design, it is believed to be based on the company’s Gambit family of uncrewed jets and the experimental XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station platform.
Notably, the two experimental aircraft are the first to receive the FQ title.
“Maybe just symbolic,” Allvin says of the new class. “But it’s telling the world that we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare.”
Numerous uncrewed aircraft filling support roles bear the designation “MQ”, such as the General Atomics MQ-9 family of multi-role UAVs, the Northrop Grumman MQ-4C maritime reconnaissance platform and the Boeing MQ-25 autonomous refueller.
The Pentagon hopes to produce CCAs in large numbers, and at a lower cost than conventionally manned fighters, as a way of offsetting China’s numerical advantages in aircraft and ships in the Western Pacific.
Conceptually, multiple FQ fighters will be teamed with existing platforms like the Lockheed Martin F-35 and F-22 to provide additional combat effects. While the air force has said the initial CCA models will focus on backing up manned fighters with additional air-to-air munitions, subsequent generations could expand to offer air-to-ground strike capability or electronic warfare support.
“Our CCA is a high performance aircraft designed specifically for the air superiority mission, acting as a force multiplier for crewed aircraft within the real constraints of cost and time,” Anduril’s senior vice-president of engineering Jason Levin says of the YFQ-44A.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems president David Alexander notes the YFQ-42A is the company’s latest design in a ”long and distinguished” line of aircraft that pioneered uncrewed military operations, including the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper.
”These aircraft represent an unrivalled history of capable, dependable uncrewed platforms that meet the needs of America’s war fighters and point the way to a significant new era for air power,” Alexander says.
Both firms touted the affordability and flexibility of their designs, along with the potential for large-scale production.
Although the USAF remains bullish on the CCA concept, the future of the programme remains in limbo, along with several other key initiatives. These include a new air superiority platform and a survivable aerial refueller.
Allvin says the fate of those programmes will be determined by the secretary and undersecretary of the air force, who are still pending confirmation by the US Senate.
“They certainly have the right and the responsibility to be able to look over all the things that we’ve done as we look to future planning,” Allvin says.
“And we should be able to show them how what we’re doing works for the future,” he adds.
Previous air force secretary Frank Kendall took an active role in shaping the service’s aircraft procurement and initiatives, championing the sixth-generation fighter effort known as Next Generation Air Dominance and calling for the development of the service’s first non-commercial-derivative tanker.
As he was preparing to leave office in December, Kendall announced he was deferring decisions on those and other high profile modernisation efforts to his successor.
