The future of air power pairs large numbers of collaborative, mission-focused, and cost-imposing autonomous unmanned aircraft alongside the most potent human-crewed fighters of today and tomorrow. A pilot in an F-35 Lightning II or Next-Generation Air Dominance System needs multiple unmanned teammates to provide magazine depth or surveil the battlespace ahead, evade detection, relay their findings, and, if necessary, take action on their own or in concert with the rest of the force.
The symbol of the new era is a bold new unmanned collaborative aircraft system that will reshape the way the Air Force and others do their work: the Gambit Series.
Unlike other proposed collaborative platforms, Gambit is a series of aircraft, with multiple variants that can be finely tuned for the most particular and demanding missions. This includes separate versions for high-demand ISR, air-to-air engagements, fighter training, and stealthy combat reconnaissance. But, most importantly, they all have something in common.
The Gambit Core
Gambit starts with a core platform that encapsulates a single set of common hardware: landing gear, baseline avionics, chassis, and other essential functions. A common Gambit Core accounts for roughly 70 percent of the price among the various models, providing an economy of scale to help lower costs, increase interoperability, and enhance or accelerate the development of variants.
In this same way Gambit Core establishes a common baseline, then takes on its mission and identity with the addition of different engines, fuselages, wings, and other internal and external characteristics that define four unique variants.
Gambit 1 – Long-Endurance ISR
Gambit 1 is a nimble sensing platform optimized for long endurance. The aircraft can accompany other unmanned aircraft or join with human-crewed aircraft on the leading edge of a strike package, serving as the initial eyes and ears for the air group. The weight savings from high aspect wings and a fuel-optimized engine mean the aircraft can spend more time patrolling a given box of airspace to provide early warning or surveillance.
Gambit 2 – Air-to-Air Combat
Gambit 2 adds the provision for air-to-air weapons. The characteristic outer mold line means the aircraft has less endurance than its pure play reconnaissance sibling. But it more than makes up for that with a newfound ability to hold even advanced hostile aircraft at risk.
Gambit 3 – Advanced Trainer
Gambit 3 looks much like Gambit 2, only optimized for a complex adversary air role. This aircraft will support sorties against some of the most capable U.S. systems, including U.S. integrated air defense systems, along with other current fifth-generation tactical air assets. This is another way in which unmanned autonomous aircraft offer reduced operations and sustainment costs for training our warfighters for the fight ahead.
Gambit 4 – Stealth Combat Recon
Gambit 4 is a combat reconnaissance-focused model with no tail and swept wings. This aircraft is optimized for long-endurance missions of a specialized nature, leveraging low-observable elements and other advanced systems for avoiding enemy detection.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has been selected to build production representative flight test articles of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) for the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC).
GA-ASI flew the XQ-67A Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) for the first time on Feb. 28, 2024. OBSS is an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) program and GA-ASI was selected in 2021 to design, build and fly the new aircraft.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) demonstrated its rapidly maturing open standards-based autonomy ecosystem for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) on an MQ-20 Avenger® as part of a live flight test on Nov. 2, 2023.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) demonstrated its hardware-agnostic, open standards-based autonomy ecosystem for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) on a GA-ASI MQ-20 Avenger® as part of a live flight test on Nov. 13, 2023.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) advanced its ability to operationalize the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) ecosystem by combining advanced autonomy and government-provided human-machine interface (HMI) hardware.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) will manufacture and perform demonstration flights of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) unmanned Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) aircraft. Following a 12-month base period that culminated in a critical design review (CDR), AFRL exercised a build and flight test option.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) further advanced its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) ecosystem by flying three unique missions with artificially intelligent (AI) pilots on an operationally relevant Open Mission System (OMS) software stack.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) paired a company-owned MQ-20 Avenger® Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) with a Sabreliner, operated by Lockheed Martin and acting as a surrogate fighter, and two F-5 Advanced Tigers (AT) from Tactical Air Support configured with internal TacIRST sensors, to perform multi-platform infrared sensing.
The short takeoff and landing unmanned aircraft demonstrator, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., already has set new milestones in getting airborne or returning to the surface.
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There’s been a lot of talk about building a new generation of autonomous systems to help the U.S. and its allies preserve their advantage in airpower. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is leading the way. To understand how, consider the scale and nature of the challenge: Tomorrow’s Air Force needs large numbers of versatile, highly capable aircraft to scout ahead, share what they sense, take on tasks and act largely on their own.
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