U.S. Air Force gets its first uncrewed ‘fighter’ aircraft

The U.S. Air Force has taken delivery of its first two Collaborative Combat Aircraft, uncrewed jets built to fly alongside fighter pilots, at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, the Department of the Air Force said Sept. 24.

Anduril delivered its YFQ-44A Fury to the base’s Experimental Operations Unit in August, and General Atomics followed with its YFQ-42A, which the Air Force called Vengeance, last week. Air Force operators are now flying the Fury on their own, Anduril said. Air Combat Command will use both aircraft to work out how the drones should fight next to crewed fighters in contested airspace.

“Putting CCA in the hands of Airmen is how we build the operational future of this program,” said Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink. “Anduril’s Fury and General Atomics’ Vengeance deliveries show we can move at incredible speed, compete, and deliver cost-effective combat power to the force.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Fury and Vengeance to the experimental operational unit,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach. “Our Airmen are excited to see what Collaborative Combat Aircraft can do.”

Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, are semi-autonomous drones meant to carry weapons and sensors on missions with jets such as the F-35 and the future F-47. Each is expected to cost roughly a third as much as an F-35A. Anduril’s Fury is about half the size of an F-16.

Airmen at Creech have started testing how small teams can launch and recover the aircraft from scattered, austere locations, an approach the Air Force calls Agile Combat Employment. The service ran its second such exercise with CCA at Creech in July. The same month, a YFQ-44A fired an AIM-120 air-to-air missile in a live test.

The Air Force picked Anduril and General Atomics in 2024 to build prototypes for the first round of the program, known as Increment 1. The YFQ-42A first flew in August 2025 and the YFQ-44A in October 2025. General Atomics paused flight testing earlier this year after one of its aircraft crashed, then resumed.

On June 17, the Air Force ordered both designs into production, four months ahead of schedule, rather than choosing one. Production aircraft drop the “Y” prototype prefix and become the FQ-42A and FQ-44A. The service has said it wants more than 150 CCAs by the end of the decade and has asked for $1 billion in fiscal 2027 procurement funding, plus $1.4 billion for development. It has not disclosed contract values, unit prices or how orders will be split between the two companies.

Both firms are already building production jets. On July 28, Anduril rolled out the first FQ-44A built at its Arsenal-1 factory in Pickaway County, Ohio, and General Atomics said full-scale manufacturing of the FQ-42A was underway.

The Air Force is also planning a second round of the program, Increment 2, but has not released firm requirements. Northrop Grumman’s Talon Blue design has already received the YFQ-48A designation.