In a historic development, the U.S. Air Force has awarded fighter aircraft designations to a pair of prototype unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Air Force stated that 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, “Y” indicates a prototype, and “Q” denotes an unmanned aerial system.
Announcing the news on March 3, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin noted that this is the first time an unmanned aircraft intended for use by the U.S. military has been assigned the fighter designation.
While the designation applies only 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,” Allvin said. “It means collaborative combat aircraft. It means human-machine teaming. We are developing those capabilities, thinking, ‘mission first.’”
Allvin indicated that 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.
David R. Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), said the YFQ-42A prototype is the latest in a series of successful General Atomics unmanned aircraft designs for surveillance and ground strike missions.
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 such as the Chinese regime and Russia.The service stated that 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,” the Congressional Research Service report states. “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.”
Anduril celebrated the Air Force’s official series designations for the two drone prototypes.
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 sixth-generation fighter program, dubbed the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter 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 system (ICBM) program, which seeks to replace the existing Minuteman III ICBM arsenal.
