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3w ago

Air Force CCA Wingman Fires First Live AIM-120 Missile

The YFQ-44A test validated the program’s digital link between pilot commands and weapon release and signals a move from prototype testing toward fielded production.

A YFQ-44A Collaborative Combat Aircraft fires an AIM-120 weapon in secluded airspace over the Mojave Desert. The live-fire test of the YFQ-44 aircraft is the latest milestone in the rapid development of safe and effective CCA operations. (Image credit: U.S. Air Force photo by Jennifer Healy)
Image
Pictured is a U.S. Air Force photo in April of personnel with Air Combat Command’s Experimental Operations Unit and Anduril Industries during maintenance of a YFQ-44A Fury at Edwards AFB, Calif.

Overview

  • An Anduril YFQ-44A launched an AIM-120 air-to-air missile at a digital target over the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, July 15, completing an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight engagement sequence.
  • Service and program officials said the live shot validated digital integration models by exercising the data link, weapon interfaces, and software that take a target track to a commanded release.
  • The Air Force reiterated that a human operator must authorize any weapon release so the test demonstrated automated execution inside pilot-defined parameters rather than autonomous lethal decision-making.
  • Both YFQ-44A and General Atomics’s YFQ-42A have production contracts for initial lots and a similar live-fire from the YFQ-42A is expected in the fall after it resumed testing following a spring grounding.
  • The test advances the CCA plan to buy large numbers of low-cost 'wingmen' and accelerates FY2027 development and procurement needs while leaving budget, scale-up and operational risk to be resolved before wide deployment.