In April 2024, the US Air Force awarded the start-up Anduril and the aircraft manufacturer General Atomics the first two contracts under the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, program. Prioritizing American giants in the aeronautics sector, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, the two companies must now produce a prototype which will be evaluated by the US Air Force in 2026. The combat drone(s) selected will pass then in production, for entry into service in 2028.
However, this procedure only concerns the first tranche of the 1000 combat drones that the US Air Force intends to receive by the end of the decade. A second tranche, once again open to major American aircraft manufacturers, will take place soon. Determined to get the lion's share of this contract, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, or GA-ASI, is doing everything it can to attract the US Air Force and meet its expectations, including in terms of schedule.
In this section:
A combat drone synthesizing the XQ-67a and the Gambit program for the US Air Force
To seduce the US Air Force, GA-ASI can draw on its skills and past experience in drones. The aircraft manufacturer is, let us remember, at the origin of the wave of drones which hit the West from the mid-90s, with the MALE MQ-1 Predator drones, then the MQ-9 Reaper, in service first within the American armies, then the allied armies.
The company, like its drones, has built a reputation for reliability over the years, including in difficult theaters, even if, quickly, competing offers appeared, often significantly more economical than American drones.
In addition to MALE drones, GA-ASI has participated in numerous research and development programs, such as with the MQ-20 Avenger, widely used by the US Air Force, for its various programs aimed at developing on-board systems, but also artificial intelligence called to pilot these drones.
More recently, the aircraft manufacturer designed the XQ-67a on behalf of the Air Force Research Laboratories, as part of the Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program, preparing the emergence of the Collaborativ Combat Aircraft, or CCA, program which we are talking about now. The drone made its first flight in February 2024.
At the same time, GA-ASI developed the Gambit drone family concept, making it possible, on the basis of a unified central module, to assemble different types of drones, from MALE to supersonic combat, simply by replacing certain standardized components (wings , engine, on-board systems). The XQ-67a was designed on Gambit paradigms, making it the first drone in this family, sometimes referred to as Gambit 1.
It is precisely on the basis of these two programs that General Atomics intends to develop the combat drone which will be offered to the US Air Force, as part of the CCA program. Taking up both the acquired knowledge of the XQ-67a, and the concepts of the Gambit family, the aircraft manufacturer announced that its prototype, ordered by the US Air Force only two months ago, will make its first flight in mid-2025.
General Atomics is already anticipating and sizing its industrial production capacities to meet the needs of the US Air Force
Being the first to come up for air, in a potential two-participant competition, is a great competitive advantage. To be convinced of this, it is enough to observe how the Bell V-280 Valor largely won against the Sikorsky SB-1 Defiant, in the US Army FLRAA competition, after taking to the air, and started testing a year ahead of its competitor.
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