YFQ-42A enters flight tests with USAF

The YFQ-42A collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is now undergoing flight tests with the US Air Force according to an August 27 press release. The YFQ-42A has been built and flown in just over a year, following a USAF contract in April 2024, which awarded contracts to Anduril and General Atomics to design, manufacture, and test production-representative CCAs. 

“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,” GA-ASI President David Alexander, said in the press release. 

The YFQ-42A is designed for semi-autonomous operation and builds upon GA-ASI’s XQ-67A. The XQ-67A was built from a genus platform, which is a concept developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and GA-ASI to create a genus platform. The company describes the genus platform as, “the foundational core architecture from which several “species” of aircraft can be built.” 

So, the YFQ-42A is built upon the genus established under that programme, and the speed of development further validates that line of effort. The Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing (LCAAPS) program was contracted in 2021. GA-ASI was selected to design, build, and fly the new aircraft, which eventually took off in February 2024. This isn’t a bad development timeframe, but it is much longer than the 16 months for the YFQ-42A. 

Digital engineering was used to facilitate this speed, as well as GA-ASI’s pedigree in uncrewed flight. Specifically, “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 press release claims. The company is also focused on developing a “high-rate production environment” that will enable the USAF to meet its goal of producing 1,000 CCAs, the press release adds. 

Anduril’s Fury was selected at the same time as the YFQ-42A and has received the USAF designation YFQ-44A. It conducted ground tests in May 2025 and the company said that flight testing will begin “soon,” in a statement to trade media on August 27. 

The CCA programme is described by the USAF as a central part of the Next Generation Air Dominance initiative, establishing a new framework for adaptable, software-defined airpower. It is designed to use multiple vendor solutions to reduce risk through competition, while also employing open-system architectures. This approach allows for the continuous and rapid development of autonomy and mission systems, ensuring new capabilities are delivered at a high tempo. A procurement decision is expected in 2026.

YFQ-42A and digital engineering

Like most US DoD programmes, the YFQ-42A has been developed using digital engineering, which has sped up the development process, GA-ASI states. Digital engineering refers to the use of digital models of a platform as the central source of truth for all development. Any changes are made digitally and tested before they are carried over to the factory floor. Unlike traditional methods that rely on physical prototypes, two-dimensional drawings, and fragmented documents, digital engineering creates a comprehensive, three-dimensional digital twin of a system, incorporating data from all stages of its lifecycle. This model allows engineers to simulate performance, identify issues, and test modifications in a virtual environment before ever building a physical object.

The DoD officially mandated the use of digital engineering on December 21, 2023, with the publication of DoD Instruction 5000.97, “Digital Engineering”. This instruction establishes policy and procedures for incorporating digital engineering methodologies, technologies, and practices throughout the life cycle of defense acquisition programs. The instruction mandates that all programs initiated after this date must incorporate digital engineering unless a specific exception is granted. So, digital engineering has grown significantly as a subject area since then, albeit because the DoD made it a central requirement. 

There are a few programmes that have used it from the outset, including the AN/SPY-6 family of air defence radars developed by Raytheon. In addition, much of the US’s hypersonic weapon development is carried out digitally before expensive live tests are carried out. The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is also using digital engineering extensively. 

However, USAF  Secretary, Frank Kendall, told reporters in May 2023 that the benefits of digital engineering had been overhyped. He added that at best it saves 20% in terms of costs and time for well-known technologies, but new technologies require at least as much physical testing, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine. Nevertheless, a round table of industry representatives held by the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2025 indicates that the real benefits of digital engineering are not in saving time, but in helping companies grapple with increasingly complex technology. 

“You can’t compare what was a third or fourth-generation jet, even Typhoon, which is fundamentally unstable and needs all sorts of computers to keep it in the air, to what we’re doing now with GCAP…It’s no longer just the aircraft. It is the battlespace that it commands and operates in. So, while the speed is increasing from a digital tool perspective, the complexity of what people have to do is increasing manifold,” Tim Giles, ALM Sales at PTC is quoted as saying. 

And this really seems to be key. CCAs like the YFQ-42A are going to be performing in complex scenarios, perhaps controlled from an AWACS like Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, or as part of a complex sortie designed to penetrate and degrade adversary air defences. All of this at the speed of a fighter jet, rather than the lower, more manageable speeds of reconnaissance UAVs like the MQ-9B. This is an inherently complex design process, especially as there is no human pilot to correct any errors or respond dynamically to changing conditions. So, perhaps for CCAs and the YFQ-42A, the main benefit of digital engineering is in how it handles this complexity. 

Calibre comment

CCAs are an interesting element of the current defence paradigm. They rest on the assumption, which has no doubt been tested in war games and simulations, that generating additional mass through autonomous systems will create new ways of fighting and maintain air superiority. Additional crewed platforms are not seen as an option because of cost, and in some cases because of the high risk to the personnel involved. As is the case for digital engineering, the real test for CCAs will come when they are deployed in real-world scenarios. It is only then that armed forces will be able to assess whether or not they meaningfully improve force composition and capability. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on August 28, 2025. Credit for the lead image is GA-ASI, it shows the YFQ-42A taking off during its flight test.