General Atomics begin ground testing on US Air Force’s unmanned fighter

General Atomics announced recently that it’s working towards getting the newly named YFQ-42A unmanned fighter flying this summer. That starts with ground tests, which began this month.

The YFQ-42A is part of the US Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, designed to completely change the way the branch plans air combat. What does that mean? Well, basically, it’s unmanned fighter jets. Pretty sci-fi if you ask me, but it is quickly becoming reality!

“The YFQ-42A is an exciting next step for our company,” General Atomics Aeronautical Systems President David Alexander said in a statement. “It reflects many years of partnership with the U.S. Air Force of advancing unmanned combat aviation for the United States and its allies around the world, and we’re excited to begin ground testing and move to first flight.”

While many may believe that the CCA program will mean replacing human pilots, taking them out of harm’s way and creating cheaper, expendable fighter drones, the YFQ-42A will accompany human pilots into battle, expand the weapon systems they can field, and make each pilot better equipped for what they may face.

This could be done by moving the pilots’ direct effect weapon systems to the CCA, or replacing Electronic Warfare dedicated jets with an EW-equipped YFQ-42A. In further ideas, the typical squadron could be drastically changed with one or two F-35 pilots commanding various unmanned fighters in the field.

For now, General Atomics needs to get the massive drone off the ground. This starts with ground tests. These could be as simple as starting up the engines, performing taxi tests, or making mock takeoff attempts. All of these tests will allow General Atomics to better understand the vehicle before it attempts its first flight sometime later this year.

General Atomics has a history of developing unmanned aircraft for the US military. It created the original MQ-1 Predator drone, which has now been replaced by the MQ-9 Reaper. The company has also achieved its first flight with its XQ-67A unmanned CCA.

While the YFQ-42A and XQ-67A have similar features, they serve different missions. While the YFQ-42A is an in-development fighter jet for the US Air Force, the XQ-67A is an experimental aircraft. The 67A will never move on from being what it is and will only be used to test the technology that the 42A will eventually use. The goal for the 42A is to have it eventually be adopted by the Air Force, having the Y dropped from its name and officially be named the FQ-42A and enter service.