The U.S. Air Force has selected Anduril for the production phase of its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, with the company set to deliver an initial batch of production FQ-44 semi-autonomous fighter aircraft to support continued testing, validation and eventual operational fielding, the company stated.
The contract also establishes a framework under which the Air Force can purchase additional lots of production FQ-44s over the coming years. Anduril described the aircraft as the first semi-autonomous fighter to move into serial production, and said the decision arrived months ahead of schedule.
The FQ-44, previously designated YFQ-44A and known as Fury during its early development, is one of two designs selected in April 2024 for the first increment of the CCA effort, alongside General Atomics’ YFQ-42A. The programme is intended to field large numbers of comparatively affordable uncrewed aircraft to operate alongside crewed fighters, expanding combat mass at a pace and cost that conventional fighter production cannot match.
Anduril set out the timeline behind the award: prototype contract in April 2024, ground testing from April 2025, first flight in October 2025 and a production contract in June 2026. The company characterised this as “the fastest path from prototype to production for a fighter aircraft in more than 50 years”, as quoted in the press release.
On performance, the firm said the aircraft in its current configuration has the ferry range to deploy worldwide, can operate from short fields, and offers a combat radius that exceeds that of current crewed fighters, according to the company. Anduril added that multiple aircraft are now flying regularly, with dozens of sorties completed from multiple airfields in different mission configurations. The company said it has flown two different mission autonomy software suites and switched between them mid-flight, and has integrated and flown the aircraft with inert air-to-air munitions.
Testing has also extended to operational handling on the ground. In a first exercise with the Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit, Anduril said a small crew with only days of training was able to launch, recover and turn multiple FQ-44 sorties without the infrastructure of a large established base.
Production will take place at Arsenal-1, the company’s manufacturing facility in Ohio, where work is already under way. The line is capable of delivering up to 150 aircraft per year in its current configuration, according to the company, which said its full rate production processes and tooling were implemented on prototype aircraft in order to identify and resolve issues before the transition to serial manufacture.
Good example of a target drone that became a CCA. It’s a pity Quientiq didn’t take its jack Daw concept further. Could have given us something very similar and very cheap.