GA-ASI teams with USAF on YFQ-42A CCA flight testing

Image courtesy GA-ASI

This historic achievement continues the company’s rapid creation of new, jet-powered uncrewed platforms chartered by the US Air Force (USAF) to achieve air dominance while being designed for rapid production, in large quantities, at an affordable price.

"What a great moment for the US Air Force and for GA-ASI," said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. "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, 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 state-of-the-art, model-based digital engineering, GA-ASI was 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, an aircraft no other company has. 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.

The GA-ASI programme 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 five million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Poway, California. GA-ASI aircraft have amassed nearly nine million total flight hours, with more than 50 GA-ASI aircraft aloft around the world every minute of every day.