US Air Force Names Its First 2 Drone Prototypes With Fighter Jet Designations, in Historic Development

Last updated on March 5th, 2025 at 12:02 pm

For the first time, the U.S. Air Force has granted fighter designations to a pair of jet powered unmanned aerial vehicles that are currently under development.

On March 3, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced the service had designated a General Atomics aircraft prototype as the YFQ-42A, and an Anduril Industries prototype as the YFQ-44A.

Lettered mission design series designation’s indicate an aircraft’s intended role. In the U.S. military’s aircraft designation convention, “Y” indicates a prototype aircraft, while “F” designates a fighter jet, and “Q” designates an unmanned aircraft.

The Air Force is evaluating these General Atomics and Anduril prototypes as part of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which seeks to team unmanned fighter aircraft with future generations of fighter jets and bombers.

“For the first time in our history, we have a fighter designation in the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A,” Allvin said. “It may be just symbolic, but we are telling the world we are leaning into a new chapter of aerial warfare. It means collaborative combat aircraft, it means human-machine teaming. We are developing those capabilities thinking, ‘mission first.’”

Past U.S. military drones, like the MQ-9 Reaper, have been equipped to carry weapons for striking ground targets. By contrast, a qualified unmanned fighter aircraft would be used for air-to-air combat.

Allvin said the General Atomics and Anduril designs only existed on paper a couple years ago, but the Air Force intends to begin flight tests with the prototypes this summer.

“We’re proud to get a new official aircraft designation,” General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. president David R. Alexander said Monday.

In his own statement, reacting to the announcement, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey noted the number 44 is considered a bad omen in Chinese numerology because the pronunciation of the word four sounds like the word “death,” with 44 essentially meaning “double death.”

“Fight unfair” Anduril Industries added in a March 4 social media post sharing the news.

The Air Force has looked to pair its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program with it’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter program, which proposes a manned sixth generation stealth fighter jet. The Air Force paused NGAD’s development last year, citing cost concerns.

At the time of NGAD’s pause, Air Force planners were concerned about being able to budget for the program and still sustain development on the B-21 Raider stealth bomber program, which seeks to replace the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber; and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program which seeks to replace Minuteman III ICBMs.

In July, the Defense Department reported the Sentinel ICBM program cost estimate had risen from about $95 billion to around $140.9 billion.

Addressing the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Colorado on March 3, Allvin indicated the Air Force is still looking to advance NGAD despite the current pause.

“If we’re in this dangerous and dynamic time, I want to give the president as many options as we possibly can. So that means yes, keep on the modernization. Yes, NGAD,” Allvin said.