A YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft lands after a test flight in California on Wednesday (U.S. Air Force Photo)
A General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) YFQ-42A Gambit prototype for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program flew for the first time in California on Wednesday ahead of what the Air Force expects to be a CCA Increment 1 downselect in fiscal 2026, which starts Oct. 1.
The Air Force has also said that it expects to start the development of CCA Increment 2 next year.
For Increment 1, the YFQ-42A is competing against a Anduril Industries YFQ-44A Fury prototype, which has not yet flown. Anduril said on August 27 that the YFQ-44A will fly soon.
“The CCA went from concept to flight in just 16 months after the contract was awarded–proving that we can deliver combat capability at speed,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a statement on August 27.
To accelerate CCA fielding, the Air Force said that it “is executing a multi-faceted learning campaign.”
“This includes rigorous vendor-led developmental testing, independent evaluations at Edwards AFB, Calif., and operational assessments by the Experimental Operations Unit at Nellis AFB, Nev.,” the service said.
“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,” according to General Atomics. “The integrated capabilities of a stealthy, air-to-air focused uncrewed jet, combined with a learned AI autonomy core, provide warfighters with a definitive advantage in the future fight.”
In April last year, the Air Force narrowed the CCA Increment 1 field to General Atomics and Anduril.
The range of the U.S. Air Force’s prototype CCAs are to be at least 700 nautical miles–greater than the 590 nautical mile range of the Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter by Lockheed Martin and the 670 nautical mile range of the service’s F-35A Lightning II, also by Lockheed Martin.
Beale AFB, Calif.–the home of the U-2 surveillance plane–is to house the Aircraft Readiness Unit for CCAs to allow them to deploy quickly.
The House Armed Services Committee wants the U.S. Air Force to lay out its plan for full- scale production of CCA Increment 1.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.