Marine Corps brings General Atomics into CCA program for autonomy development
The Marine Corps has tapped General Atomics to help further develop the autonomous flight capabilities of the service’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) platform, the company announced Tuesday.
Under the new contract, the Marines will use General Atomics’ YFQ-42A aircraft — developed by the company for the Air Force’s CCA program — to evaluate how the service’s future loyal wingman drones will integrate with and fly alongside crewed fighter jets, according to a General Atomics news release. The company did not provide details on how much the contract is worth.
The work will directly inform the service’s Marine Air-Ground Task Force Uncrewed Expeditionary Tactical Aircraft (MUX TACAIR) program. Like others across the Pentagon, the Marines are developing unmanned aerial vehicles that can augment manned aircraft to provide additional strike and intelligence-gathering capabilities.
In January, the service awarded Northrop Grumman a $231.5 million deal to serve as prime contractor for increment 1 of the MUX TACAIR program. Northrop is partnering with Kratos for the effort, and will integrate its mission kits and autonomy software onto an XQ-58 Valkyrie drone built by Kratos.
General Atomics’ role will be to retrofit a Marine Corps mission kit onto its YFQ-42A, which will act as a surrogate loyal wingman drone, according to the company.
The work will allow the service to quickly develop and verify the autonomous capabilities for MUX TACAIR. The Marines intend to deliver a prototype loyal wingman drone to demonstrate and evaluate its conventional takeoff and landing capability and critical systems in fiscal 2026, according to budget documents.
“Our FQ-42, combined with our proven autonomy architecture and integration expertise, positions us to rapidly deliver an affordable CCA solution that enhances the Marine Air-Ground Task Force’s operational effectiveness in contested environments,” Mike Atwood, vice president of advanced programs at General Atomics, said in a statement.
General Atomics built the YFQ-42A for increment 1 of the Air Force’s CCA program. The company was one of two that received contracts from the service in 2024 to build prototypes and conduct flight tests of the loyal wingman drones.
The firm conducted the first flight of the YFQ-42A in August 2025, and is currently in the live flight-testing phase of the program.
