YFQ-42A Dark Merlin
UCAV / Demonstrator
The YFQ-42A Dark Merlin is a semi-autonomous uncrewed combat aircraft test platform developed by General Atomics for the U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme. It first flew in 2025 and conducted flight sorties during an Experimental Operations Unit activity at Creech Air Force Base in July 2026.
The U.S. Air Force describes CCA as an effort to develop modular and affordable uncrewed aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed fighters. Public sources have not disclosed dimensions, performance, range or payload figures, so those fields are recorded as TBC.
USAF CCA operational test ↗ — During the Agile Combat Employment exercise at Creech Air Force Base, the YFQ-42A was tested in forward deployment, maintenance, refuelling and turn-around processes.
Systems
- •Autonomy (Semi-Autonomous Flight)
- •System Architecture (Modular and Open Architecture)
Sensors
No public details are available.
Compatible weapons
No public details are available.