GA-ASI Marks Another Aviation First with YFQ-42A CCA Flight Testing

NYSE - LSE

RBGPF	0%	78.22	$
CMSC	-0.29%	23.87	$
SCS	-0.06%	17.21	$
VOD	-0.53%	11.36	$
RELX	-0.43%	46.41	$
NGG	1.23%	73.43	$
GSK	-0.78%	43.35	$
RYCEF	0.51%	15.76	$
BTI	-0.7%	51.24	$
RIO	-0.23%	66.11	$
CMSD	0.25%	24.45	$
BP	0.88%	34.16	$
BCE	0.56%	23.36	$
JRI	0.21%	14.3	$
AZN	1.95%	85.31	$
BCC	-0.53%	77.63	$

GA-ASI Marks Another Aviation First with YFQ-42A CCA Flight Testing

TECHNOLOGY 27.08.2025

"What a great moment for the U.S. 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."

Text size:

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA / ACCESS Newswire / August 27, 2025 / The YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft, designed and developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), is now conducting flight testing in coordination with the U.S. Air Force. This historic achievement continues the company's rapid creation of new, jet-powered uncrewed platforms chartered by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to achieve air dominance while being designed for rapid production, in large quantities, at an affordable price.

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 optimizing 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 program 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 5 million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Poway, Calif. GA-ASI aircraft have amassed nearly 9 million total flight hours; more than 50 GA-ASI aircraft are aloft around the world every minute of every day.

About GA-ASI

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., is the world's foremost builder of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Logging nearly 9 million flight hours, the Predator^® line of UAS has flown for over 30 years and includes MQ-9A Reaper^®, MQ-1C Gray Eagle^®, MQ-20 Avenger^®, and MQ-9B SkyGuardian^®/SeaGuardian^®. The company is dedicated to providing long-endurance, multi-mission solutions that deliver persistent situational awareness and rapid strike.

For more information, visit www.ga-asi.com.

Avenger, EagleEye, Gray Eagle, Lynx, Predator, Reaper, SeaGuardian, and SkyGuardian are trademarks of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. registered in the United States and/or other countries.

# # #

Contact Information

GA-ASI Media Relations
[email protected]
(858) 524-8101

SOURCE: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

C.Stoecklin--VB