Latest news with #YFQ-42A
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
AI-powered 'Wingman' drones stun Paris Airshow 2025: What they are, how they work, and why Military is betting big
What Are Wingman Drones? The Fury and the YFQ-42A Live Events Boeing and Ghost Bat's Major Test Europe and Turkey Join the Race A Big European Partnership (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel At the Paris Airshow this year, drones took centre stage like never before. Some of the world's biggest defence companies and new-age tech firms gathered to show off next-generation 'wingman' drones, unmanned aircraft that fly alongside fighter jets and support them in drones are being developed to work closely with modern fighter planes and are set to reshape the way wars are fought. The growing popularity of drones in the Ukraine war and rising tensions in the Pacific region have pushed countries like the U.S. to invest heavily in this drones, officially known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), are uncrewed fighter-style planes that can perform dangerous missions alongside human pilots. They can do things like spy on the enemy, jam enemy signals, launch attacks, or even protect the year, the U.S. Air Force picked two companies, Anduril and General Atomics , to start building these advanced drones. These companies put their latest models on display at the Paris Anduril showcased a model of its Fury drone, which is planned to go into production by 2027. The company is moving fast, with plans to build a massive production facility in Ohio. Anduril has already supplied smaller drones to Ukraine and also signed a £30 million deal with the UK to send its compact Altius drones for Ukrainian Atomics, meanwhile, displayed the YFQ-42A, its answer to the Fury. Both are being developed to support U.S. forces in the Pacific, especially in case of a conflict involving China and Taiwan. Boeing made headlines with a successful test involving its Ghost Bat drones. In the trial, the drones flew alongside a manned Australian surveillance aircraft and completed a mission, all controlled remotely by a human. Officials said this kind of drone could make one fighter jet as powerful as a team, using sensors that act like 'hundreds of eyes in the sky.'European defence firms aren't far behind. Companies like Saab, Dassault Aviation, Airbus, and Indra Sistemas are working on the Future Combat Air System, which will combine drones and manned fighter Baykar also brought its drones to the Paris Airshow for the first time, including the Akinci and the TB3, which can land on small aircraft carriers. Baykar has also teamed up with Italian company Leonardo to create unmanned systems another major announcement, Germany's Rheinmetall said it would partner with Anduril to build Fury and Barracuda drones (a missile-style drone) for rising global tensions and the growing success of drones in battlefields, the race to build smarter, faster, and more capable drones is heating up. And at this year's Paris Airshow, it's clear that the future of war may be fought by machines flying side-by-side with from Reuters
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Yahoo
Air Force sets up new Experimental Operations Unit for Collaborative Combat Aircraft
The U.S. Air Force's 53rd Wing officially elevated its Collaborative Combat Aircraft unit to a fully operational squadron. The new Experimental Operations Unit was formally activated on Thursday, June 5 at Nellis Air Force Base. The unit had previously operated as a detachment under the 53rd Wing, based in Nevada, since 2023. This week's activation as a fully operational squadron comes as the Air Force steps up testing of the first phase of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (or CCA) program. 'The EOU embodies our commitment to rapid innovation and ensuring our warfighters have the most advanced tools to dominate the future battlespace,' Col. Daniel Lehoski, commander of the 53rd Wing, said in the announcement from the Air Force. 'They are ready to reduce risk in concurrency and deliver capability faster.' CCA development is a part of the sixth-generation Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet program, which itself started as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA) project in 2015. The idea is to create remote controlled aircraft to be essentially uncrewed wingmen for pilots, with each crewed fighter jet able to give commands to the drones. While other branches of the armed forces are working on a greater integration of drones and other uncrewed systems, the Air Force's CCA program is unique in that it would act as an uncrewed force multiplier for crewed aircraft. The program is being developed in two stages, or increments as the Air Force refers to it. Increment 1 is currently testing some of the new aircraft, which were designated the YFQ-42A and the YFQ-44A in March, and made by General Atomics and Anduril, respectively. The new experimental operations unit at Nellis will start with running simulations out of the base's Virtual Warfare Center and the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center. The Air Force's stated plan is to eventually carry out actual flight tests based on those simulations. Lt. Col. Matthew Jensen, head of the Experimental Operations Unit, said that the new squadron's mission is to deliver 'combat-ready capabilities' to the force. 'Our vision is to create a collaborative combat ecosystem that is more agile, adaptable and lethal,' Jensen said. 'This will enable our forces to dominate the future battlespace and achieve decisive advantages in complex, contested environments.' The activation of the experimental operations unit comes only a few weeks after the Air Force began ground testing of CCA systems at Beale Air Force Base in California. Beale was selected as the home for the Air Force's first CCA Aircraft Readiness Unit. Navy SEAL Team 6 operator will be the military's new top enlisted leader Veterans receiving disability payments might have been underpaid, IG finds Guam barracks conditions are 'baffling,' Navy admiral says in email Navy fires admiral in charge of unmanned systems office after investigation The Pentagon wants troops to change duty stations less often
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hybrid-Electric GHOST Strike-Recon Drone In The Works For USAF
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded General Atomics a contract for work on what is described as a 'hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial system,' or GHOST. A propulsion system of this kind can offer a very high degree of efficiency, which can translate to significant unrefueled range, as well as being very quiet. General Atomics has publicly touted work in this area in the past, tied in part to its Gambit modular drone family, which it has said could lead to a design capable of staying aloft for up to 60 hours, at least. The Pentagon included AFRL's GHOST award to General Atomics, a cost-plus-fixed-fee deal valued at $99,292,613, in its daily contracting notice today. The full entry reads: 'General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. Poway, California, was awarded a $99,292,613 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for hybrid-electric propulsion ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial systems (GHOST). This contract provides for the advancement of the hybrid-electric ducted fan next-generation intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance/strike unmanned aerial systems to provide capabilities across a spectrum of contested environments. Work will be performed at Poway, California, and is expected to be completed by Aug. 26, 2028. This contract was a sole source acquisition. Fiscal 2024 research, development, test and appropriations funds in the amount of $26,867,479 are being obligated at time of award. The Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (FA2931-25-C-B035).' Additional details about the GHOST effort, including what plans there might be now to operationalize what the program produces, are scant. TWZ has reached out to AFRL for more information. 'For more than 30 years, General Atomics has advanced unmanned aerial systems in ways never before achieved and often poorly replicated,' C. Mark Brinkley, a spokesperson for General Atomics, told TWZ when asked for more details. 'Satcom [satellite communications] control? Did it. Kinetic strike? That was us. Automatic takeoff and landing? That, too. Unmanned jets? We're building our third.' General Atomics' third jet-powered drone, at least that it has publicly acknowledged, is the YFQ-42A under development now as part of the U.S. Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. It is derived from the experimental XQ-67A drone produced for AFRL's once-secretive Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program. There is also the company's stealthy Avenger uncrewed aircraft. 'We've been promising something impressive related to hybrid-electric propulsion, and now I can't talk about it anymore,' he added. 'That's how it goes with these things. Contrary to what you see on the news, the revolution won't be televised.' In general, hybrid-electric propulsion systems offer improved fuel economy and other benefits by combining fuel-powered engines and electric motors. The system can be paired with batteries of various capacities to achieve its desired performance. Using ducted fans can offer additional performance and other benefits. Hybrid-electric configurations can also help reduce infrared and acoustic signatures on top of other low-observable (stealthy) design features. As noted, General Atomics has been very open in the past about its work on hybrid-electric propulsion involving ducted fans for future stealthy long-endurance drones. 'We are working on hybrid electric propulsion,' Mike Atwood, then Senior Director, Advanced Programs at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), told Breaking Defense in 2022. 'We believe that GA is going to pioneer a completely new way to propel airborne air-breathing [vehicles]. That will be unveiled in the coming years, but it is a completely disruptive technology. It uses a hybrid electric system where it's basically a Tesla Model S and an RQ-170 got together and you have a fully electric aircraft.' Atwood has since become GA-ASI's Vice President for Advanced Programs. At that time, General Atomics had presented a notional concept for a stealthy flying wing-type drone, referred to as MQ-Next, and pitched as a potential successor to the company's still-popular MQ-9. Two years earlier, the Air Force, the largest known operator of MQ-9s, had announced its desire to stop buying those drones largely over concerns about their vulnerability in future high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific. The service has continued to receive additional representatives since then. 'The key to this design is [a] heavy fuel engine, driving very efficient generators and motors. And that way we can get fairly low [fan] speeds, get really good efficiency,' Dave Alexander, GA-ASI's President, also told Breaking Defense in 2022. 'So, this is [a] game changer right here. This is a low-pressure ratio fan, so it's a little tricky and we got to be careful with it. But we believe once we nail this, get the thrust out of it and installed weight, then that'll drive that aircraft [to new lengths.].' Breaking Defense's report added that Alexander had talked about a 60-hour endurance for the MQ-Next concept and described it as particularly well suited for persistent long-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions over the hotly contested South China Sea. He also talked about a goal being for the drone to be able to operate from a 3,000-foot-long rough runway in alignment with the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment (ACE) expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations. Last year, Alexander again highlighted General Atomics' work on hybrid-electric propulsion systems utilizing ducted fans in an interview with Aviation Week on the sidelines of the annual Royal International Air Tattoo in the United Kingdom. At that time, he also directly linked these developments to the Gambit family of modular drones, and the Gambit 4 design in particular. General Atomics has presented a variety of very different potential Gambit drones, but they are all designed around a common 'chassis' that includes landing gear, as well as key mission and flight control computer systems. To date, Gambit 4 has been consistently depicted as a stealthy flying wing-type design intended for long-endurance persistent ISR missions that is fully in line with the MQ-Next concept General Atomics had previously shown, as seen in the video below. 'That part of the Gambit series is still out there and we want to make sure we don't lose sight of that,' Alexander said. 'It's very unique.' 'Heavy Fuel Engine 2.0 in development for the MQ-1C Block 25 is not the basis for Gambit 4's hybrid propulsion system, Alexander said,' Aviation Week's report added. 'A different diesel engine with eight cylinders will be developed to generate the power for the electric motors in Gambit 4.' Without knowing more about the work General Atomics is now doing for AFRL as part of GHOST, it is hard to say specifically what kinds of operational tasks the resulting drone might be capable of performing. However, in previous reporting about broadly similar designs, TWZ has highlighted the value that a stealthy, ultra-quiet drone with significant range and endurance could offer for conducting ISR missions, and doing so covertly, in denied areas. The GHOST contract announcement also mentions the potential for the drones to be capable of performing strike missions. The ability to immediately prosecute at least some targets of opportunity would be another major benefit of this kind of uncrewed aircraft. Northrop Grumman subsidiary Scaled Composites is currently working on a different highly efficient and whisper-quiet hybrid-electric flying wing-type drone called the XRQ-73 as part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program called the Series Hybrid Electric Propulsion AiRcraft Demonstration (SHEPARD). DARPA has been running SHEPARD in cooperation with AFRL, as well as the Office of Naval Research, since 2021. The XRQ-73 design is also a direct outgrowth of the XRQ-72A that Scaled Composites developed for a previous effort called Great Horned Owl (GHO), which the U.S. Intelligence Community's Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) ran from the early 2000s until sometime in the 2010s. AFRL was also involved in GHO. TWZ was the first to report in detail on the XRQ-72A, which featured a hybrid-electric propulsion system with ducted fan propulsors. The U.S. military and U.S. Intelligence Community have a long history of work on ultra-quiet crewed and uncrewed aircraft dating back to the height of the Cold War, and additional relevant developments could well be underway now in the classified realm. It's also worth noting here that the GHOST contract comes amid renewed concerns about the MQ-9's vulnerability even to lower-tier threats following a spate of losses to Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen in the past year or so. With General Atomics now on contract with AFRL for GHOST, it remains to be seen whether more details about that specific effort begin to emerge. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Pentagon Is Getting $150 Billion From the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Despite describing himself as a "fiscal hawk," President Donald Trump asked for an additional $113 billion for the Department of Defense in his discretionary budget request. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed the House of Representatives on Thursday, appropriates $37 billion more for defense spending than Trump requested. While some of this money may go to projects integral to national security, much of it is expensive pork for defense contractors. The bill, if passed by the Senate, would add an estimated $2.3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. It would appropriate an additional $150 billion to the Defense Department's already-bloated $848 billion budget, bringing the agency's account to nearly $1 trillion in FY 2026. The additional appropriations in the bill from the Committee on Armed Services, which oversees Pentagon spending, span 37 pages, 16 sections, and 232 items. In the air, over $500 million will go to Air Force exercises in the Pacific, a rather expensive way to saber-rattle with China. Nearly $1 billion will be allocated to "accelerate" production of the FA/XX aircraft and the F-47, which Trump touted as the "Next Generation Air Dominance" platform that will be "the most advanced, capable, and lethal aircraft ever built." But investing this much in another manned aircraft seems anachronistic while appropriating more than $10 billion for unmanned aerial weapons systems such as General Atomics' YFQ-42A and Anduril's YFQ-44A, autonomous one-way attack systems, unmanned surface and underwater weapons systems, and other artificial intelligence and autonomous capabilities. At sea, the federal government will allocate more than $5 billion to the American shipbuilding industrial base, which the Jones Act has hollowed out. This century-old law requires all ships transporting goods between U.S. ports to be American-built, American-owned, and crewed by U.S. citizens. The bill also appropriates a combined $16 billion for a Virginia-class submarine, two guided missile destroyers, a San Antonio–class Amphibious Transport Dock, and another amphibious assault ship. (The Navy already has 23, 75, 13, and 12 of these, respectively.) About $3 billion will be given to the Defense Department to purchase T-AO oilers to help fuel the Navy's fleet of roughly 280 ships. The Pentagon has failed each of the seven audits it has submitted to the department's inspector general since it began doing so in 2017—more than 25 years after Congress passed a law requiring agencies to investigate their own finances, Reason's Joe Lancaster explains. While the bill has not yet been signed into law, the Senate is unlikely to alter military appropriations significantly. Giving the Pentagon even more money while it can't account for its expenditures does not make the country safer; it rewards incompetence and waste. The post The Pentagon Is Getting $150 Billion From the 'Big Beautiful Bill' appeared first on
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Both Air Force CCAs now in ground testing, expected to fly this summer
General Atomics announced Monday that ground testing of its YFQ-42A began earlier this month, and the collaborative combat aircraft is expected to have its first flight this summer. In a statement, General Atomics said their CCA's ground testing began May 7. 'The YFQ-42A is an exciting next step for our company,' David Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautics Systems, said in a statement. 'It reflects many years of partnership with the U.S. Air Force of advancing unmanned combat aviation for the United States and its allies around the world, and we're excited to begin ground testing and move to first flight.' The announcement follows the Air Force's revelation May 1 that Anduril Industries' CCA, the YFQ-44A, had also started its ground testing. Anduril also expects its CCA to start flight tests this summer. CCAs are uncrewed, semi-autonomous drones that will fly alongside aircraft like the F-35 and F-47, also known as Next Generation Air Dominance. Their purpose is to expand the reach of the Air Force's limited fleet of crewed fighters and conduct missions, such as strike operations, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and to serve as decoys. The Air Force chose General Atomics and Anduril to design, build and test the first iteration of CCAs in April 2024. General Atomics' YFQ-42A is derived from its XQ-67 Off-Board Sensing Station drone, which the Air Force Research Laboratory flew in 2024 to test a 'platform sharing' construction concept. That drone was built on a chassis that could be used as a foundation for multiple drones, which the company and AFRL said could allow drones to be built en masse and more cheaply. Anduril's YFQ-44A was previously called Fury, and the company uses its Lattice operating system for its autonomous capabilities. The service posted a graphic last week that said these first CCAs would have a combat radius of more than 700 nautical miles and stealth comparable to the F-35's. The Air Force wants to have at least 1,000 CCAs. The Air Force also plans to locate its first CCA aircraft readiness unit — which will keep them in a 'fly-ready status' for rapid deployment — at Beale Air Force Base in California. Because CCAs would not need to be flown regularly to keep pilots trained, the Air Force expects the drones would only be flown a minimal amount of times. That means Beale's unit would likely need fewer support airmen than crewed aircraft require, such as maintainers, the service said. But both Anduril's and General Atomics' CCAs may not end up being in the Air Force's fleet. The service plans to choose next year which of those CCAs to move into production and start to develop the next 'increment' of the drones.
