New carrier-capable drone concept Gambit 5 unveiled by General Atomics

A fifth variant of the Gambit collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) concept has been unveiled by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI). The carrier-capable variant is claimed to have strengthened airframe and landing gear, which will help aircraft with assisted launch and arrested landing.

The company previously unveiled four Gambit variants so far, and Gambit 5 aims to explore how the core chassis concept can be adapted for carrier operations.

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, according to General Atomics.

Multiple countries interested in Combat Aircraft or Autonomous Collaborative Platform

“You have the chassis, the landing gear, flight control avionics and so on embedded inside a core module,” C. Mark Brinkley, GA-ASI’s senior director for strategic communications and marketing, told Naval News at FIA 2024.

“The idea is then to be able to rapidly prototype around that core module for different missions. We see a number of nations who are interested in extending the Collaborative Combat Aircraft or Autonomous Collaborative Platform concept into their ships. So we know that this carrier-launched version is something that is generating interest.”

Part of the Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing programme, the concept was developed by General Atomics with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Based on airframe of Gambit 2

Based on the airframe of the Gambit 2, the new concept has more powerful marginalised airframe to carry the higher loads.

Gambit 2, which adds the provision for air-to-air weapons, has less endurance than its pure-play reconnaissance sibling. But it makes up for that more with a newfound ability to hold even advanced hostile aircraft at risk.

While Gambit 1 is a nimble sensing platform optimized for long endurance and 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, according to General Atomics .

“There’s a lot that has to go into making the Gambit 5 carrier-capable [in terms of] the catapult launch and arrested landing. How do you reinforce the landing gear? How do you add the tail hook? How do you ‘marinise’ the airframe? All those considerations come into play,” Brinkley told Naval News .

“[But] we’ve been reinforcing aircraft to take off and land on aircraft carrier for a very long time. There’s no specifically new science to that.”