General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
Data verified as of Aug 18, 2026
Summary
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems built the armed drone as a category. The Predator it flew over the Balkans in 1995 and the MQ-9 Reaper that followed defined two decades of American air power, and the Predator line has now logged more than nine million flight hours. In 2026 the company converted that incumbency into the next generation: on June 17 the Air Force awarded GA-ASI a production contract for the FQ-42A, one of the first aircraft in history to carry the FQ designation, F for fighter and Q for uncrewed, alongside Anduril's FQ-44A. The two together are meant to deliver at least 150 Collaborative Combat Aircraft by the end of the decade at a target cost near $30 million each, against an eventual program goal of roughly 1,000 aircraft. GA-ASI got there fast and not smoothly: the YFQ-42A prototype flew 15 months after contract award in August 2025, was destroyed on April 6, 2026 when an autopilot miscalculated the aircraft's weight and center of gravity after takeoff, and was flying again on May 21 after a joint safety review and a software fix. By July 2026 the main production facility had been converted to build six CCAs a month. The rest of the business is the export franchise: MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian are under contract with Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, the UK and US SOCOM, with roughly $12 billion of signed deals, and India alone ordered 31 aircraft in October 2024. The strategic exposure is one layer up the stack: the Air Force competes CCA mission autonomy separately from the airframe, and while General Atomics holds one of six baseline six-year autonomy contracts, the three companies funded for the first competitive phase are Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI. Collins' Sidekick software, not GA-ASI's own, is what has been flying the YFQ-42A.
Main Products
GA-ASI's Collaborative Combat Aircraft: a purpose-built uncrewed fighter designed for modular mission-system integration, with planned variants for surveillance, air-to-air and air-to-ground work. It is among the first aircraft to carry the FQ designation, F for fighter and Q for uncrewed. The YFQ-42A prototype flew in August 2025, 15 months after contract award, was lost in an April 2026 autopilot mishap, and returned to flight in May 2026. Production was ordered on June 17, 2026 at a program target cost near $30 million per aircraft. The mission autonomy that flies it comes from a separate competition: Collins Aerospace's Sidekick software has been flying the aircraft, and the primary autonomy provider for Increment 1 is chosen by summer 2027.
Production contract awarded June 17, 2026; line converted to six CCAs a month, no deliveries announced yet.
The export franchise and the successor to the Reaper: a long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft certified to fly in civil airspace, with SeaGuardian adding maritime surveillance and anti-submarine warfare payloads. Under contract with Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, the UK and US SOCOM, it is what turns GA-ASI from a US program house into a global one. Weapons integration is continuous, most recently Paveway IV and Brimstone 3 qualification on the RAF's Protector RG Mk1 and Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile work.
In production and delivery across ten national customers.
The Army's medium-altitude long-endurance aircraft, still being upgraded rather than replaced. The Extended Range variant carries communications intelligence, synthetic aperture radar and moving-target indicator payloads on a modular architecture, and in April 2026 the Army added an electronic intelligence sensor, integrated with Sierra Nevada Corporation, so it can find and geolocate integrated air defense systems while standing off from them.
In service with the US Army; ELINT upgrade contracted April 2026.
A family of uncrewed combat aircraft built on one common core chassis, which is where the FQ-42A's speed came from: Gambit 1 for long-endurance ISR, Gambit 2 for air-to-air, Gambit 3 as an advanced trainer and target, Gambit 4 for stealthy long-endurance reconnaissance, Gambit 5 as a carrier-capable CATOBAR design, and Gambit 6, revealed in November 2025, adding air-to-ground strike. GA-ASI is marketing the family to international CCA customers and used Gambit 5 as the basis for the Navy carrier CCA design study awarded in October 2025.
Design family in development and marketing; Gambit 5 underpins the US Navy carrier-based CCA design effort.
What's Next
Deliver the first production FQ-42A aircraft
The June 2026 award started production but no delivery date has been announced. The Air Force wants at least 150 CCAs fielded from Increment 1 by the end of the decade, split with Anduril in proportions it has declined to disclose, so the first delivered tails are the first real evidence of how that split lands.
See which mission autonomy wins the CCA down-select
The Air Force runs two six-month competitive phases, funded for Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI, before naming a primary mission-autonomy provider for CCA Increment 1 by summer 2027. General Atomics holds one of the six baseline autonomy contracts but is not in the funded phase, and Collins' Sidekick software is what has flown the YFQ-42A, so the down-select decides who owns the most valuable layer of GA-ASI's flagship program.
Convert the Navy carrier CCA design study into a program
GA-ASI has been designing a carrier-capable Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Navy since October 2025, with the modular Gambit 5 as its basis. Carrier qualification is the hardest environment in uncrewed aviation and the Navy has not yet committed to a production program.
Operations & Revenue
Producing MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian for ten national customers, sustaining the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle fleets, and now standing up Collaborative Combat Aircraft production: the FQ-42A entered production in June 2026 and the main facility was converted to six CCAs a month by July, with a high-rate low-observable coating facility completed. Flight test of the YFQ-42A resumed May 21, 2026 after an April 6 autopilot mishap destroyed a test article. Development work spans the Gambit family, a Navy carrier-based CCA design study awarded in October 2025, the X-68A LongShot air-launched drone, and the Mojave STOL aircraft. GA-ASI supplies the airframe and the production capacity; the autonomy software layer on CCA is competed separately, where it holds a baseline contract but is not among the three vendors funded for the current competitive phase.
Revenue Streams
US military aircraft production and sustainment
The legacy base: MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1C Gray Eagle production, upgrades and sustainment for the Air Force and Army, including the April 2026 Gray Eagle ELINT upgrade contract with Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Foreign military and direct commercial sales of MQ-9B SkyGuardian and SeaGuardian across ten customers, roughly $12 billion of signed deals, plus the weapons-integration work that keeps them competitive: Paveway IV and Brimstone 3 on the UK Protector, Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile integration, and an MBDA collaboration on European missiles.
Key Metrics
Employees
~5,000 (third-party estimates; the company does not disclose headcount)
Est. Annual Revenue
Roughly $2.4B to $2.5B a year by third-party estimates. GA-ASI is a wholly owned subsidiary of privately held General Atomics and publishes no financials; parent General Atomics reported about $3.2 billion of revenue in 2024, ranking 191st on Forbes' list of America's largest private companies.
CCA Production Rate
Main production facility converted to 6 CCAs per month (company statement, July 2026)
CCA Increment 1 Target
At least 150 aircraft combined with Anduril by the end of the decade, at roughly less than $30M per tail; program goal near 1,000 aircraft
MQ-9B Customers
Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Taiwan, the UK and US SOCOM, against roughly $12B of signed deals
Timeline
GA-ASI names the aircraft YFQ-42A Dark Merlin in February 2026. On April 6 a test article is destroyed shortly after takeoff from the company's California desert airfield when the autopilot miscalculates the aircraft's weight and center of gravity. There are no injuries, but the aircraft is a total loss.
The YFQ-42A resumes flight testing on May 21, 2026, six weeks after the mishap, following a joint Air Force and GA-ASI safety review and software remediation of the autopilot fault. President David R. Alexander: 'It's been said that you learn more from your setbacks than your successes.'
On April 15, 2026 the US Army contracts GA-ASI to add electronic intelligence to the MQ-1C Gray Eagle Extended Range, integrating Sierra Nevada Corporation radar-detection and signal-collection technology so the aircraft can identify and geolocate integrated air defense systems from standoff range. It joins COMINT, synthetic aperture radar and moving-target indicator payloads already on the platform.
On June 17, 2026 the Air Force awards GA-ASI a production contract for the FQ-42A alongside Anduril's FQ-44A, four months ahead of schedule. Contract values are classified. The service targets at least 150 CCAs from Increment 1 by the end of the decade at roughly less than $30 million per tail, about a third of an F-35, against an eventual goal near 1,000 aircraft. Air Force acquisition executive Col. Timothy Helfrich called CCA 'the next evolution of airpower' and would not say how lots divide between the two companies.
At Farnborough in July 2026 GA-ASI says it has transitioned its main production facility to build six CCAs per month and completed a high-rate low-observable coating facility, the industrial step that separates a prototype program from a fielded fleet. The same week it qualifies Paveway IV and Brimstone 3 on the RAF's Protector RG Mk1, commits to weapons integration with MBDA, and advances Kongsberg Joint Strike Missile integration on MQ-9B.
On August 17, 2026 India's Ministry of Defence signs a roughly 1,943 crore rupee (about $203 million) 30-month lease for two MQ-9B Sea Guardians for the Navy, bridging the gap between the expiry of its existing lease in early 2027 and deliveries of the 31 aircraft ordered in 2024, which are not expected before January 2029.
The YFQ-42A makes its maiden flight in August 2025, going from contract award to first flight in 15 months, one of the fastest new fighter rollouts on record. GA-ASI credits its 'genus/species' approach of reusing a common core across aircraft types, the same idea behind the Gambit family.
In October 2025 the US Navy contracts GA-ASI to develop conceptual designs for a carrier-capable Collaborative Combat Aircraft, emphasizing a modular platform that can be reconfigured and upgraded for the future carrier air wing. GA-ASI's Gambit 5 is its CATOBAR carrier-capable design.
India's Ministry of Defence signs for 31 MQ-9B high-altitude long-endurance aircraft in October 2024, 15 SeaGuardians for the Navy and eight SkyGuardians each for the Army and Air Force, in a deal worth roughly $3.3 billion. India becomes the largest MQ-9B customer by both value and fleet size, with first deliveries not expected before January 2029.
The RQ-1 Predator deploys to the Balkans, the first of the medium-altitude long-endurance aircraft that make GA-ASI the dominant supplier of armed and surveillance drones to the US military for the next two decades. The MQ-9 Reaper follows into Air Force service in 2007.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is established in Poway, California as the unmanned-aircraft arm of privately held General Atomics, inheriting the Gnat 750 lineage that becomes the Predator. Neal Blue chairs it and Thomas J. Cassidy runs it as president.
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