Southern California flight tests prepare Collaborative Combat Aircraft for operational evaluation and squadron generation

Southern California flight tests prepare Collaborative Combat Aircraft for operational evaluation and squadron generation

Published:

August 27, 2025

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Updated:

August 27, 2025

Aircraft

Julien Mercier

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

The Air Force’s two Collaborative Combat Aircraft prototypes have entered the first-flight window. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ YFQ-42A and Anduril Industries’ YFQ-44A completed engine runs and taxi trials over the summer, and are staged at their respective test sites pending weather, range availability and final readiness calls. Defense officials said the service will keep the initial sorties tightly controlled, with limited on-site access and delayed release of imagery.

Ground testing began in early May. By late August, multiple officials described both aircraft as “basically ready to go.” Initial flight cards will cover stability work, low-altitude envelope clears, basic communications links and checks of autonomous safety monitors. Mission sensors and weapons will follow after the airframes demonstrate performance and the autonomy stack proves out at scale.

CCA Increment 1 Prototypes and Late-August First-Flight Expectations

Each vendor built a production-representative test article for Increment 1. General Atomics’ YFQ-42A leans toward air-to-air roles when teamed with fifth-generation fighters. Anduril’s YFQ-44A-internally “Fury”-grew from the design acquired with Blue Force Technologies in 2023 and has been reworked to meet government interfaces and survivability requirements. Both aircraft are jet-powered, low-observable in form and built around a modular mission bay for rapid payload swaps.

Program pacing remains unchanged from spring: complete ground testing, begin flights in late summer and increase tempo through the first half of fiscal 2026. The service still targets a competitive Increment 1 production decision in fiscal 2026. Officials have not set a public date for first-flight announcements and indicate coverage will follow the events, mirroring prior sensitive first flights in Southern California.

Early sorties will stay close to company ranges. Anduril plans to launch the YFQ-44A from Southern California Logistics Airport north of Los Angeles, using commercial-airport infrastructure with access to segregated corridors. General Atomics intends to fly from its Gray Butte Field east of Palmdale, a long-running site for Predator-family and Avenger testing. Both locations sit a short hop from Edwards AFB ranges, simplifying chase and telemetry as the envelope opens.

Senior leaders have kept schedule pressure on both teams since contract award. Increment 1 was structured for speed, with added decision authority at the program executive office and common standards for autonomy, mission systems and interfaces. That posture let vendors lock critical designs last fall and place long-lead orders before the holidays. Taxi tests began in May, engine-on runs extended into June, and high-speed taxi and rejected-takeoff practice continued through July.

Test Locations, Safety Gates, and What the First Sorties Prove

Early flights will prove basics and burn down risk, not stage payload demos. Profiles are conservative: climb to pattern altitude, exercise flight controls, tune flight-computer gains then return for repeatable approaches. Telemetry rooms will track structural loads, temperatures, engine parameters and navigation quality. The program will hold the broader autonomy suite until airframe data matches the design models used for the critical design review.

The ranges are part of the plan. Southern California Logistics Airport offers a long runway, instrument approaches and the ability to block airspace windows without disrupting heavy commercial traffic – useful for a new jet with unknown runway-occupancy times. Gray Butte gives General Atomics an instrumented private field with fewer onlookers and short transits to restricted corridors. Both sites support engine runs, taxi profiles and tow work with minimal movement from the hangar.

Safety gates are tuned for autonomy. Autopilot and autonomy are not the same; the first sorties rely on a robust autopilot with layered keep-out logic and geofencing as a last backstop. Mission-level autonomy-teaming behaviors and dynamic route replans – enters only after multiple crewed – chase flights validate handling qualities. Clearance boards have set hard limits on what can change between sorties without re-flying test points.

Air-to-Air Teaming, “Affordable Mass,” and the Near-Term Mission Set

Increment 1 is centered on air superiority. The Air Force wants each CCA to carry air-to-air weapons, take target assignments from F-22s and F-35s, and execute shots that raise the number of simultaneous engagements a package can handle. Crewed fighters are magazine-limited when they stay clean and carry missiles internally. Pairing roughly two CCAs per fighter adds weapons without forcing external stores on the crewed jets.

The platforms follow the service’s “affordable mass” approach. The objective is not a fragile, high-cost UAV that nears a crewed fighter’s price. Leaders have pointed to a unit-cost bracket around $25-30 million in out-year lots, enabling buys in the hundreds in the late 2020s and early 2030s. Vendors chased cost with off-the-shelf engines, simplified landing gear and structures aligned to broader U.S. supply chains while meeting signature and performance marks for contested airspace.

Weapons integration will ramp with maturity. Prototypes arrive with instrumentation and balast, not a full missile load. Internal-carriage clearance follows closure of aerodynamic and structural data, then captive-carry work checks mechanical and electrical interfaces. Live shots against drone targets come later on Western ranges, once the autonomy stack can accept cueing from crewed fighters and fire within safety-board rule sets.

Teaming tactics will stay restrained until confidence builds, echoing the early stealth era: expand slowly, add complexity in steps and keep pilots in the loop for kill-chain decisions. The CCA autonomy software will accept tasking, propose routes and pace the engagement; the human partner still approves weapons release. In parallel, the program plans electronic-warfare and sensing payload tests to define contributions when the air vehicles are not carrying missles.

Budget Profile, Basing at Beale AFB, and the Road to Production in FY26

The Air Force requested about $804 million for CCA in the FY2026 budget to expand flight test, integrate mission systems and plan for production. Earlier profiles show a ramp into the low billions in FY2027-FY2029 as the program shifts from prototypes to operational lots. Congress has pressed for acceleration and a detailed transition plan from demonstrations to full-rate production once flight data supports it.

Lawmakers also want a clearer split between autonomy software and air vehicle hardware. House report language this summer directs a briefing on pilot-vehicle interfaces, mission-system development in parallel with the airframes, and use of modular open systems architecture to avoid vendor lock. That matches the Increment 1 construct: two lead air-vehicle vendors and a broader competitive pool for autonomy and payloads.

Basing stepped forward in May with Beale AFB, Calif., named as the prefered site for the first CCA Aircraft Readiness Unit. The unit will generate mission-ready air vehicles, handle training and maintenance, and roll in new mission – software baselines as the fleet grows. Beale’s ISR pedigree and proximity to the West Coast ranges support early operationalization without long ferry legs.

Vendors are hardening supply chains. General Atomics is pairing CCA with a European roadmap derived from the YFQ-42A, positioning to localize mission-system content where it fits. Anduril has folded in the Blue Force Technologies capacity it acquired in 2023 to enable higher-rate composites and distributed subassembly production. The moves support carrying more than one contractor into production and adjusting workshares as missions evolve.

The production path runs through data. Flight-test telemetry closes the loop on controls, propulsion and thermal margins, unlocking envelope expansion. Mission-system work on captive testbeds checks weapons interfaces, sensor fusion and datalinks before live ordnance. Autonomy capability drops as software loads, with simulator hours clearing features before flight. The plan remains feasible in FY2026 if software drops on schedule and the airframes avoid structural surprises at high-g.

Public messaging will stay tight. After crowds staked out Palmdale for the B-21’s first flight, the department plans stricter airspace control, minimal notice, and a lag between flights and imagery releases. To build confidence with pilots and oversight committees, the service expects to share substantive data after roughly the first half-dozen sorties stabilize the envelope.

Near-term operations drive the urgency: more shots, more sensors and more decoys per package without doubling crewed fighters inside a dense threat ring. CCAs are meant to extend stealth formations, complicate targeting and buy time for follow-on weapons – provided the air vehicles are repeatable, safe and affordable. First flights are the gate to weapons integration, scaled autonomy, and tactics work with operational jets.

Increment 2 is intentionally open. It could lean into electronic attack, SEAD or strike, and may favor a specialized airframe rather than a symmetric second source for the air-to-air role. The production model and MOSA standards are designed to make those pivots manageable; payloads and autonomy iterate faster than airframes. Increment 1 has to prove that’s true in flight.

Numbers remain the wild card. A notional ~1,000-aircraft CCA fleet has been cited across increments alongside a smaller buy of next-generation crewed fighters, but it’s directional not a program of record. What matters now: flying on time, expanding the envelope without long pauses and pushing reliable autonomy behaviors into software drops that pilots trust in tight airspace.

CCA Increment 1 Flight Cards Focus on Envelope, Links, and Safety Logic

The first flight cards are disciplined. Teams will validate primary and secondary flight-control laws at approach and climb-out speeds, record pitch- and roll-rate response, and verify air-data calibration and inertial aligment. Telemetry rooms will watch trim points against CFD predictions. Engineers will compare engine spool times, takeoff-roll acceleration and brake-energy margins on aborts to confirm the runway analyses built during taxi tests.

Communications checks will confirm that line-of-sight links hold under realistic antenna patterns. Crews will run degraded-mode drills that force a fall-back to reduced-bandwidth control with tighter geofencing and more aggresive lost-link logic. An autonomy monitor-seperate from the mission-level autonomy core-will ride on all early sorties to ensure the system can assert a safe-mode return if parameters drift.

Chase pilots will grade handling qualities on the Cooper-Harper scale. Those calls feed the next software load as engineers retune gains and adjust control-surface limits. The aim is to cut suprises before the prototypes climb into denser air where flutter margins shrink and buffet models need proof.

Two checkpoints follow as the envelope opens:

Captive carry: an instrumented mass simulator in the weapons bay to validate door actuation, aero disturbances, and thermal effects.

Formation run: with a crewed fighter to pass target-assignment messages over the tactical datalink and confirm timing, message integrity, and cue latency.
Test Infrastructure in Southern California and the Transition to Edwards Ranges

The geography supports the schedule. Southern California Logistics Airport gives Anduril long pavement, wide clear zones and a permissive setting for rejected takeoffs without tying up a busy commercial hub. Ground crews can stage hardware, roll and recover inside a contained footprint with dedicated security. The runway sits within easy transit to the R-2508 complex, with the restricted airspace and telemetry infrastructure needed for higher-risk points.

General Atomics has built Gray Butte into a private test center. The field’s 8,000-foot runway and long Predator-family history provide hangars, ground-control shelters and telemetry downlinks set up for unmanned jet work. Once early sorties settle, the prototypes can step into the Edwards range complex for flutter, high-Mach and weapons work under the test wing.

Range governance enforces discipline. The test wing will require closed-loop data before clearing high-g maneuvers or recommending captive-carry beyond basic shapes. That keeps both vendors at the same safety bar despite flying from different sites, and lets the department compare envelopes and mission-system behavior across the two air vehicles under similiar conditions.

Teaming with F-22 and F-35, Weapons Roadmap, and MOSA

Increment 1 sets a narrow but useful role: CCA pairs with F-22s and F-35s in air-to-air work, takes designations from the crewed jets, and extends the package’s reach. The weapons plan starts with existing missiles, not bespoke munitions. Integration focuses on carriage and release sequences that meet signature limits, bay geometry, and thermal margins – speeding test, cutting integration cost, and shortening the path to contribution.

A modular open-systems architecture underpins the plan. Open Mission Systems and government owned interfaces give the Air Force leverage to add autonomy vendors, swap payloads, and avoid lock-in. The autonomy stack includes hard rules for human-on-the-loop control, and safety cases are being aligned with what test pilots will accept in crowded airspace. Software will iterate quickly in simulation, with small deltas moving to flight once cleared.

Tactics will step up in phases:

Single CCA with one crewed fighter for basic cue-and-shoot.

Two CCAs managed by one fighter to exercise deconfliction and timing.

Mixed four-ships with fighters and CCAs, where the drones act as forward sensors, decoys, or additional shooters based on the threat laydown.
Funding, Congressional Direction, and Beale AFB’s Readiness Unit

Funding and oversight are aligned. The FY2026 request funds test expansion, mission integration and production prep. July House directives require briefings on transition plans, human-machine interfaces and software sustainment to keep autonomy current without locking the government to a single vendor. That tracks with the acquisition plan: more than one air-vehicle supplier and an autonomy stack open to additional performers.

Beale AFB, Calif., is the preferred site for the first Aircraft Readiness Unit, tying early operationalization to a base with ISR depth and access to the right airspace. The unit will generate aircraft, manage software loads and handle maintenance as the fleet grows. It will also support tactics development with test units at Edwards and with operational fighter wings that will own the teaming mission.

Industry is posturing for scale. General Atomics has signaled European pathways tied to the YFQ-42A lineage as allies explore unmanned wingmen. Anduril has integrated Blue Force Technologies’ composite capacity to support higher-rate builds if work is split across vendors. Both moves keep options open, reward performance and allow a production surge once test data warrants it.

The next two weeks will set the pace. If both prototypes fly cleanly, the envelope expands before the end of September, captive-carry follows and autonomy loads move from simulation into controlled flight trials. If issues emerge-engine transients, control-law tuning, telemetry noise – the teams have margin to correct, refly and still support the broader FY2026 transition.

REFERENCE SOURCES

https://www.anduril.com/article/anduril-acquires-blue-force-technologies/

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4171208/daf-begins-ground-testing-for-collaborative-combat-aircraft-selects-beale-afb-a/

https://www.ga.com/ga-asi-moves-into-ground-testing-of-new-yfq-42a-cca

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/05/20/both-air-force-ccas-now-in-ground-testing-expected-to-fly-this-summer/

https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2025/6/16/general-atomics-debuts-full-scale-cca-model-at-paris-air-show

https://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/FM-Resources/Budget/Air-Force-Presidents-Budget-FY26/

https://armedservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/tal_en_bloc_1.pdf

https://www.beale.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4171644/daf-begins-ground-testing-for-collaborative-combat-aircraft-selects-beale-afb-a/

https://www.ga-asi.com/a-new-transatlantic-partnership-for-european-cca

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/05/01/air-force-starts-ground-testing-anduril-collaborative-combat-aircraft/

https://clui.org/ludb/site/gray-butte-uav-flight-operations-facility

https://www.airnav.com/airport/04ca

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https://realcleardefense.com/2025/08/26/collaborative_combat_aircraft_first_flights_are_imminent_1131016.html

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