Future of Airpower Takes First Flight

GA-ASI flies the new XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station for the first time. Source: General Atomic’s

Audrey Decker of DefenseOne informs her readers that General Atomic’s QX-67A air combat drone, a part of the U.S. Airforce’s robot wingman flew for the first time. She writes:

General Atomics’ new air combat drone has flown, another step toward what the Air Force is calling the “first of a second generation” of autonomous aircraft.

The drone, called the XQ-67A, is derived from GA-ASI’s Gambit series of aircraft, which the company is proposing for the Air Force’s program to build robot wingmen, called collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs.

The new platform is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s highly classified Off-Board Sensing Station program, or OBSS. The service awarded GA-ASI and Kratos design contracts in 2021, then picked GA-ASI actually to build the design in 2023. […]

General Atomics is one of five companies currently on contract to design CCAs. Air Force leaders said earlier this month that they would shrink the pool of vendors down to two or three companies within the next few months.

Read more here.