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, later designated the
YFQ-42, 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. ==See also==