The U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff announced that the first two Collaborative Combat Aircraft will be designated YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, making them the first assets to ever fall under the Unmanned Fighter category.
The YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A
The U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Chief of Staff, General David Allvin, announced the official designation of the first two CCAs (Collaborative Combat Aircraft) during a keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Warfare Symposium on Mar. 3, 2025. The two aircraft by General Atomics and Anduril have been named YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively, marking the first use of the ‘Unmanned Fighter’ designation by the USAF.
According to the USAF Mission Design Series each of the letters in the designation has a different meaning. The newly announced designations, the YFQ-42A and YFQ-43A, indicate prototypes (as indicated by the ‘Y’ status prefix) of UAVs (as denoted by the ‘Q’ vehicle type code) with the intended role as a fighter (indicated by the ‘F’ basic mission).
Once development is completed, and should the drones enter service with the USAF, production aircraft will take the designations FQ-42A and FQ-44A respectively. No official nicknames for the two platforms have been released.
Receiving a Mission Design Series designation is a big step in the military aviation world…this demonstrates incredible progress toward the @DeptofDefense’s charge to match threats to capabilities. 2/3
— General David Allvin (@OfficialCSAF) March 3, 2025
“We have two prototypes of Collaborative Combat Aircraft that were on paper less than a couple of years ago,” Allvin said. “For the first time in our history, we have a fighter designation in the YFQ-42 Alpha and the YFQ-44 Alpha – maybe just symbolic, but it’s telling the world that we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare.”
Gen. Allvin further added that “they’re going to be ready to fly this summer.” These new drones are being developed to be part of Increment 1 of the CCA program. The USAF selected Anduril and General Atomics for the flight test articles of the CCA program back in Apr. 2024. There were also design offers from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.
“The 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. That uncrewed aircraft gave way to the MQ-9A Reaper, the MQ-20 Avenger, our new MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian, and many others,” the official press release from General Atomics said. “YFQ-42A will be critical in securing air dominance for the Joint Force in future conflicts, leveraging autonomous capabilities and crewed-uncrewed teaming to defeat enemy threats in contested environments.”
The YFQ-42A sports an appearance very similar to that of the company’s XQ-67A, another UCAV developed for the USAF’s OBSS (Off-Board Sensing Station) program. This comes as no surprise since, on Apr. 24, 2024, General Atomics announced that the XQ-67A would serve as the prototype for the CCA Increment 1.
The YFQ-44A “represents the first aircraft type of a YFQ designation, signaling a new era of uncrewed fighter aircraft,” said Dr. Jason Levin, the senior vice president of engineering at Anduril Industries. “It reinforces what we already knew: our CCA is a high performance aircraft designed specifically for the air superiority mission, acting as a force multiplier for crewed aircraft within the real constraints of cost and time.”
Although the official nicknames for the unmanned aircraft were not released, it is known that Anduril’s internal name for the YFQ-44A is ‘Fury’. Notably, the baseline concept for ‘Fury’ started with Blue Force Technologies, which was bought by Anduril in 2023.
A concept model for the then-undesignated ‘Fury’ had the notional designation ‘YFQ-XX’ in the past. It was initially developed for the AFRL (Air Force Research Laboratory)’s Bandit program with the intent of it becoming an aggressor asset for fifth-generation fighters to train against.
The CCA Program
The CCA program is the U.S.’ program for the development of UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles) which are intended to ‘collaborate’ with current and future manned combat aircraft like the F-35, and B-21, and play a part in NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance), which is a ‘system of systems’ to help achieve air dominance.
They are also expected to incorporate AI (Artificial Intelligence), unlike more conventional UCAV solutions. The CCA program is seen as a cost-effective solution to attain air superiority, especially by using cutting-edge tech like AI to enhance the performance of the fighter fleet.
In the words of General Atomics’ press statement, “semi-autonomous aircraft, like YFQ-42A, will enhance flexibility, affordability, and mission effectiveness. YFQ-42A will enhance air superiority as a flexible, affordable force multiplier. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with current and next-generation crewed aircraft, expanding mission capabilities and ensuring continued air dominance. In short, YFQ-42A provides fighter capacity – affordable mass – at a lower cost and on a threat-relevant timeline.”
The CCA program comes in different phases, or Increments, of which the FQ-42A and/or FQ-44 will be integrated into the USAF’s arsenal as Increment 1. It is currently unclear if the USAF will buy both of the types or choose just one type for Increment 1. The USAF is expected to buy up to 150 Increment 1 CCAs which, as the ‘FQ’ designation denotes, will have an air-to-air role and act as a ‘missile truck’ to support manned combat aircraft.
The U.S. Tri-service Aircraft Designation System
The Tri-Service Aircraft Designation System, first introduced on Sep. 18, 1962, is a unified system for designating all aircrafts in the U.S. Armed Forces. Although the ‘Tri-service’ in the name suggests that it is only used in three branches, it is now implemented by all six military services in the U.S. In addition, aircraft in service with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are also often designated with the same naming system.
A typical designation takes the MDS (Mission Design Series) or T/M/S (Type/Model/Series) form which features a Status Prefix, Modified Mission, Basic Mission, and Vehicle Type codes followed by a Design Number and Series Letter. Some of the codes may not be present on all designations.
The new ‘FQ’ Designation is not to be confused with the ‘QF’ designation, which are for target drones that have converted from retired aircraft. ‘QF’ designated aircraft, like the QF-16, are modified so that they can be used for live-firing exercises by active aircraft.
