US Air Force Announces First Drone Aircraft With Fighter Designations

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said the two drone fighter prototypes are scheduled to begin flight tests this summer.

Concept art for General Atomics YFQ-42A (bottom) and Anduril Industries YFQ-44A (top) unmanned fighter aircraft prototypes. U.S. Air Force artwork courtesy of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Anduril Industries

In a historic development, the U.S. Air Force has awarded fighter aircraft designations to a pair of prototype unmanned aerial vehicles.

Announcing the move on March 3, the Air Force said it had provided the designation YFQ-42A to a prototype designed by General Atomics and had supplied the designation YFQ-44A to another prototype designed by Anduril Industries.

The Air Force said both prototypes are being considered for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program, which seeks to pair drones with current and future generations of manned military aircraft.

The development is a sign of the service’s plans to develop more advanced drone aircraft, expanding from surveillance and strike capabilities on ground targets to engaging in air-to-air combat.

U.S. military aircraft receive lettered series designations to denote their intended missions.

In this designating convention, “F” indicates a fighter aircraft, while “Y” indicates a prototype, and “Q” denotes an unmanned aerial system.

Announcing the news on Monday, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin noted this is the first time an unmanned aircraft intended for use by the U.S. military has been assigned the fighter designation.

While it only applies to prototype aircraft for now, Allvin positioned the news as a key milestone in the CCA program and the Air Force’s future force design.

“It may be just symbolic, but we are telling the world we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare. It means collaborative combat aircraft. It means human-machine teaming. We are developing those capabilities thinking, ‘mission first,’” Allvin said.

Allvin indicated these prototypes have already seen a relatively rapid development process and will soon undergo flight testing.

“They were only on paper less than a couple of years ago, and they are going to be ready to fly this summer,” the top Air Force officer stated.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) president David R. Alexander said the YFQ-42A prototype is the latest in a series of successful General Atomics unmanned aircraft designs for surveillance and ground strike missions.

“YFQ-42A continues a long and distinguished history for GA-ASI that dates back to the 1990s and the debut of the RQ-1 Predator, which later changed to MQ-1 Predator,” Alexander said in a March 3 press statement.

“That uncrewed aircraft gave way to the MQ-9A Reaper, the MQ-20 Avenger, our new MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian, and many others.”

Plans For Power Competition

The Air Force has advanced the CCA program as one of several projects to better position the service for competition with peer or near-peer nation-states like China and Russia.

According to a January Congressional Research Service report, CCA drone fighters could potentially be delivered at around a third of the cost of traditional manned fighter jets.

The service said training to operate them would also occur virtually, putting less wear and tear on these aircraft, and potentially lowering maintenance and sustainment costs.

“The Air Force could therefore potentially purchase them in quantities large enough to buttress its fleet. China’s use of anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) capabilities, such as long-range missiles and sophisticated air defense systems, has challenged the U.S. Air Force’s ability to achieve air superiority,” the Congressional Research Service report added.

Anduril celebrated the Air Force’s official series designations for the two drone prototypes.

“Today, we’re one step closer to ensuring the U.S. will dominate the skies for decades to come,” Anduril added in a post on the X social media platform on March 4.

Other Air Force programs intended to revamp the U.S. arsenal for potential conflicts with well-armed adversaries have faced recent difficulties.

The Air Force hoped to pair its CCA drone program with its future aircraft programs, including the B-21 Raider stealth bomber and its proposed 6th generation fighter program, dubbed the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter program.

NGAD has been on hold since the summer of 2024. Air Force leaders cited concerns about high costs in their decision to halt the program.

Those officials were reportedly concerned about being able to properly budget for this new fighter, as well as the B-21 Raider and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, which seeks to replace the existing Minuteman III ICBM arsenal.

The Sentinel ICBM program has seen multiple cost overruns, with a July Defense Department report indicating the overall program cost had risen to $140.9 billion, from an initial estimate of around $95 billion.