General Atomics’ YFQ-42A makes first flight in early lead for U.S. Air Force drone fighter program
General Atomics’ YFQ-42A has completed its first flight in California, becoming the first Collaborative Combat Aircraft contender to get airborne for the U.S. Air Force.
The test gives General Atomics an early edge in the Air Force’s CCA Increment 1 competition, where the YFQ-42A Gambit is facing Anduril Industries’ YFQ-44A Fury. Anduril has said its aircraft will fly soon, but it has not yet done so. The flight comes as the Air Force moves toward a planned downselect in fiscal 2026, which begins on Oct. 1, to determine the next phase of the first CCA effort. The service had already narrowed the field to General Atomics and Anduril in April last year.
The Air Force has framed CCA as a rapid-development effort designed to move from concept to operational capability far faster than traditional combat aircraft programs. To support that goal, the service said it is running a multi-part learning campaign that combines contractor-led developmental testing, independent evaluations at Edwards Air Force Base in California and operational assessments by the Experimental Operations Unit at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. General Atomics said the autonomy core used in the YFQ-42A has been trained over more than five years of flight testing on its jet-powered MQ-20 Avenger. The company said the pairing of a stealthy, air-to-air focused uncrewed jet with an AI-enabled autonomy core is intended to give future operators a clear combat advantage.
Published requirements indicate the Air Force’s prototype CCAs are expected to have a range of at least 700 nautical miles. That is greater than the roughly 590-nautical-mile range of the F-22 Raptor and the 670-nautical-mile range of the F-35A Lightning II. The service also plans to base an Aircraft Readiness Unit for CCAs at Beale Air Force Base in California to support rapid deployment. At the same time, the Air Force has said it expects to begin development work on CCA Increment 2 next year, underscoring that the program is being shaped as a longer-term family of systems rather than a one-off procurement.
The first flight does not decide the competition, but it gives General Atomics a tangible milestone as the Air Force approaches a key selection decision. Pressure is also building on the Pentagon to define the path beyond prototypes, with the House Armed Services Committee seeking a detailed plan for full-scale production of Increment 1 aircraft. If the schedule holds, the CCA effort could become an early test of how quickly the United States can field autonomous combat aircraft and fold them into future air power planning.