Defense technology company Anduril has completed the first YFQ-44A Fury built at its Arsenal-1 factory in Ohio, moving the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program from prototype testing toward repeatable factory production.
The Air Force awarded production contracts to Anduril’s FQ-44 and General Atomics’ FQ-42 on June 17, declaring both designs ready for full-scale manufacturing. It plans to procure more than 150 aircraft across the two designs by 2030 and roughly 1,000 Collaborative Combat Aircraft over the longer term.
Anduril’s stated capacity of 150 Fury aircraft annually is a factory ceiling under full three-shift operation, not its present output or a confirmed order; the Air Force has not disclosed how initial purchases will be split between the two designs. A $310 million JobsOhio grant and 4,008-job commitment cover the wider Arsenal-1 campus through 2035, not the Fury line alone.
A YFQ-44A fired an AIM-120 in July after a human operator authorized its release; the Air Force says CCA will not autonomously employ weapons.
The program has earlier roots – Skyborg, one of its precursors, flew in 2021 – but Ukraine validated its central logic: uncrewed mass, rapid iteration and reduced human exposure. Fury brings that logic into high-end air combat for future contested environments.
