Another FQ-42 Vengeance has joined the Air Force’s test fleet. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) said a new example of its uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft was delivered to Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, on Sept. 18, 2026, to continue operations with test and evaluation units. The company also said it is positioned to build six of the aircraft a month.
Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs, are the Air Force’s planned drone wingmen: jet-powered, uncrewed aircraft meant to fly alongside crewed fighters. The Sept. 18 delivery is the latest step in a schedule that has moved from contract award to production in about two years.
GA-ASI announced the delivery in a Sept. 21, 2026 release from San Diego, describing the FQ-42 as “a 5th-generation uncrewed fighter with an internal weapons bay and other features designed for low observability and increased survivability.” Those are the company’s design claims; the aircraft’s performance in Air Force testing has not been published.
Six a month is a capacity claim
The production figure comes with a qualifier. In the same release, GA-ASI said it “is currently positioned to deliver six aircraft per month to meet USAF goals, with more manufacturing space available to respond to additional orders.” That is a statement of capacity from the builder, not a delivery record. Neither the company nor the Air Force has published how many FQ-42s have been delivered to date.
Mike Atwood, GA-ASI’s vice president of advanced programs, said in the release that the program’s “rate of progress has been incredible” and that the Air Force is “pushing forward with new and more impressive accomplishments using Vengeance” every week.
From YFQ-42A to FQ-42A
The aircraft’s paper trail is short and fast. According to the Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles designation listing, the YFQ-42A designation was allocated to General Atomics’ CCA prototypes in March 2025, and the Air Force selected Vengeance as the official popular name in September 2026. The same listing notes the number 42 is out of sequence in both the Q- and F-series, and that the reason is unknown.
GA-ASI reported that the prototype began flight testing in August 2025. “It’s been our collaboration that enabled us to build and fly the YFQ-42A in just over a year,” GA-ASI President David R. Alexander said in that Aug. 27, 2025 release.
The record includes a setback. In a May 21, 2026 release, GA-ASI said a YFQ-42A was lost in an April 6 mishap shortly after takeoff, caused by “an autopilot miscalculation for the weight and center of gravity of the aircraft.” The company said the aircraft was a total loss, that no one was injured, and that flight testing resumed after safety reviews and software changes that the Air Force and GA-ASI evaluated together.
Production under way
Less than a month later, on June 17, 2026, GA-ASI announced that the Air Force had awarded it a production contract for the FQ-42A. The release described “the initial order” and said “manufacturing is already well underway,” but did not state a quantity, contract value or delivery schedule. The designation listing describes the June 2026 award as an engineering and manufacturing development and production contract.
The FQ-42 builds on GA-ASI’s long run with remotely piloted aircraft. The company’s Sept. 21 release cites more than 9 million flight hours for its Predator line and dates its work on uncrewed jets to 2008.
What comes next is testing at the pace the company says it can supply. With a production contract signed in June and a claimed capacity of six aircraft a month, the measure to watch is how many FQ-42As the Air Force actually accepts, and when it publishes results from the test units at Creech.
Featured image: A YFQ-42A collaborative combat aircraft prototype landing at Creech Air Force Base. Image Credit: Staff Sgt. Jake Jacobsen, U.S. Air Force — Public domain / Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Combat Rated editors prior to publication.