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General Atomics XQ-67A

The General Atomics XQ-67A is a developmental unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UAV) built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) for the United States Air Force Off-Board Sensing Station program and as a prototype for the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program.

Design and development

In February 2023 the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced that GA-ASI had been selected to build and test a UAV for the Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program, intended to fly ahead of and pass data back to manned aircraft. The prototype was publicly unveiled by GA-ASI on 8 February 2024. It is unclear whether or not the XQ-67A is capable of carrying weapons.

The XQ-67A had its first flight on 28 February 2024 from GA-ASI's Grey Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale, California. The AFRL stated that "the XQ-67A is the first of a second generation of autonomous collaborative platforms. Following the success of the XQ-58A Valkyrie, the first low-cost uncrewed air vehicle intended to provide the warfighter with credible and affordable mass, the XQ-67A proves the common chassis or genus approach to aircraft design, build and test... This approach paves the way for other aircraft "species" to be rapidly replicated on a standard genus chassis...The genus can be built upon for other aircraft — similar to that of a vehicle frame — with the possibility of adding different aircraft kits to the frame, such as an Off-Board Sensing Station or Off-Board Weapon Station."

On 24 April 2024, upon being awarded for the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) Increment I, GA-ASI announced that the XQ-67A was a prototype for the CCA program and that the official entry for the CCA would be based on the XQ-67A and feature a common core system. It is speculated that the XQ-67A is representative of "Gambit 1", the first iteration of the previously revealed General Atomics Gambit family. However, GA-ASI has made no specific connection between the XQ-67A, the CCA program, and Gambit.