US Air Force has announced that the two contenders for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme from Anduril and GA-ASI are designated YFQ-44A and YFQ-42A.
This is the first time the service has designated UAVs to participate in air-to-air combat missions. The Y prefix stands for prototype and will be dropped as the prototypes progress into initial production. The F prefix stands for “Fighter” and Q for “Unmanned”.
XQ-67A spotted at tests last year has been designated YFQ-42A within the scope of the CCA programme as the off-board sensor. The design is notable for top-mounted air intake and low observability with sharp profiles.
Anduril’s YFQ-44A, or Fury, is intended for aggressive manoeuvres with a profile optimized for high-G turns and speeds up to Mach 0.95. The unmanned combat aircraft’s nose bay can house a radar, IRST, or electronic warfare system. Munition carriage is possible but limited to external stores.
The current approach of the USAF in CCA consists of low-cost supporting platforms rather than full-on unmanned fighters. It can be expected that unmanned combat aircraft with capabilities that can keep up with manned fighters more broadly would follow after various platforms that have one aspect of a fighter jet.
