General Atomics CCA drone wingman prototype crashes in California

WASHINGTON — A General Atomics prototype built for the Air Force’s budding Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone wingman program crashed in the California desert today after takeoff, the company said in a statement.

Nobody was injured in the mishap, which occurred “following takeoff from a company-owned airport” at approximately 1 pm Pacific time, the statement said. Flight tests for General Atomics’ YFQ-42A have now been halted “temporarily in an abundance of caution” and will “resume when deemed appropriate.” General Atomics owns and operates Gray Butte Airport near Palmdale, Calif.

An Air Force spokesperson said in a statement to Breaking Defense that the service “is aware of the incident and will follow standard aircraft mishap protocols.” 

The cause of the crash is unclear. “At this early stage, it would be premature to speculate on the circumstances,” the company statement said. “As with any program, we follow a disciplined investigation process to understand exactly what occurred, and our focus right now is on gathering data and ensuring we learn from this event.”

General Atomics said in the statement today the drone that crashed is “one of several production-representative” YFQ-42A drones, which “fly regularly” for testing. The company has publicly revealed at least three copies of the YFQ-42A drone, dubbed Dark Merlin by the privately-held firm.

“Safety is our top priority, for our people and the public. In this case, established procedures and safeguards worked as intended, and there were no injuries,” company spokesman C. Mark Brinkley said in the statement. “We’re going to take a close look at what happened, gather all the data, and allow the investigation to guide us moving forward.”

The Air Force awarded the firm a prototyping deal — alongside competitor Anduril — for the first round of its CCA program in 2024. Anduril’s YFQ-44A drone recently began carrying inert weapons in flight testing, but it’s not clear whether the General Atomics drone has started similar flight events. 

A production deal is expected to be awarded this summer, where Northrop Grumman’s YFQ-48A has since emerged as a dark horse contender. 

The second round of the CCA program is currently underway as well, where Breaking Defense previously reported that nine firms have won early design deals. 

The YFQ-42A is part of what General Atomics describes as a “family” of unmanned wingman designs collectively dubbed Gambit. The company is pitching the unmanned aircraft as a centerpiece of its drone wingman strategy, including for foreign competitions like ones in Europe.