General Atomics Aeronautical (GA-ASI) announced on Tuesday that their YFQ-42A Collaborative Combat Aircraft has been selected to undergo testing and evaluation as apart of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) program.
The United States Marine Corps ultimately seeks experimentation and validation regarding unmanned-manned teaming amongst autonomous and crewed aircraft. Under this testing regime, the YFQ-42A will perform as a “surrogate” airframe fitted with a government-provided testing package to assess integration progress with Marine crewed fighter aircraft.
The contract signed by General Atomics designates that the YFQ-42A will be fitted with a Marine-Corps specific mission kit, in order to evaluate integration into the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Integration with the MAGTF will pave the way for autonomous integration within the U.S military’s most responsive units, with the test additionally serving as a trial run of CCA type aircraft within the Marine Corps expeditionary mission set.
“Our YFQ-42, combined with our proven autonomy architecture and integration expertise, positions us to rapidly deliver an affordable CCA solution that enhances the Marine Air-Ground Task Force’s operational effectiveness in contested environments.”
– Mike Atwood, Vice President of Advanced Programs for GA-ASI
The modularity of the YFQ-42A and it’s flexible autonomy through a common “flight core” makes it ideal for the swapping of mission sets, lending the aircraft towards rapid testing of multiple, different mission sets required by the U.S military. The enables the testing of the government/Marine Corps mission kit, generating ease of testing of different, sensors, software, and effects.
Testing with the Marine Corps will also leverage General Atomic’s 30 year long history regarding the development of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), with GA-ASI’s product catalogue consisting of the MQ-9A Reaper, MQ-1C Gray Eagle, MQ-20 Avenger, and MQ-9B Sky/SeaGuardian.
About the YFQ-42
The YFQ-42A has been in development and testing since 2024, following the initial contract selection by the United States Air Force (USAF), which stated that GA-ASI was to build a fully flyable CCA type aircraft for testing. The YFQ-42 was developed as an offshoot from unmanned air-to-air combat concepts first proven on the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS), and has since matured with autonomous flight training and profiling provided by GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger.
Making it’s maiden flight in August of 2025, the YFQ-42 has since entered testing, with the design of the aircraft itself allowing for increased scalability and speed of manufacturing following the Air Force’s stated demand of at least several hundred CCAs. The YFQ-42 is planned to have an internal armament of 2 AIM-120 size air-to-air munitions, alongside probable external stores, and will feature enhanced speed and maneuverability over the MQ-67A.
