US Air Force selects Anduril and General Atomics to build CCA drone wingmen

The United States Air Force (USAF) has selected Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) to build drone wingman for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.

On June 17, 2026, both Anduril and General Atomics announced their flight test articles had been given the green light by USAF to move forward with production aircraft.

General Atomics said it had won a production contract from the USAF for its FQ-42A Dark Merlin, while Anduril achieved the same for its FQ-44 Fury drone.

The USAF said the production contracts had been awarded four months ahead of schedule after the two platforms met “rigorous mission requirements”.

The selection decision followed a “competitive source selection process” by the USAF to identify the “most capable and cost-effective solutions to maintain air superiority in an increasingly complex and contested global threat environment”.

General Atomics FQ-42A Dark Merlin“By moving fast from competitive selection into full-scale manufacturing, we position ourselves to field highly credible and combat-ready semi-autonomous systems to stay ahead of the pacing challenge,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, said. “These contracts reaffirm our confidence in the strategic path forward for the program to procure over 150 combat capable CCA by the end of the decade.”

General Atomic and Anduril were selected in April 2024 to build production-representative flight test articles for CCA Increment 1.

“By announcing a production decision months ahead of schedule, the Air Force is making their belief in the program clear,” Mark Shushnar Vice President at Anduril Industries, said. “The decision serves as a testament to the capability that the combined Anduril-USAF team has built and the steps that we have already taken to prove it out.”

Today, the @usairforce selected Anduril for the production phase of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program. We are now on contract to deliver production FQ-44 fighter aircraft to support continued testing, validation, and, ultimately, operational fielding. From prototype… https://t.co/XsNLcS0wlX pic.twitter.com/RaVNlxsEG9— Anduril Industries (@anduriltech) June 17, 2026 Shushnar said that the contract also establishes a structure for the USAF to buy additional lots of production FQ-44 aircraft across the next several years.

GA-ASI said it fast-tracked development of its FQ-42A, moving from contract award to first flight in just 15 months.

“This is an exciting day for our company and the nation,” David R. Alexander, President of GA-ASI, said. “Moving to production on FQ-42A is the result of an extraordinary partnership and many years of investments between General Atomics and the U.S. Air Force. We’ve been preparing for this order, and manufacturing is already well underway.”

Mission autonomy software contracts

The US Air Force also awarded mission autonomy production contracts to a pool of six companies.

USAF said the “baseline, six-year contract vehicle provides the framework for continuous competition and rapid software development”. The six vendors selected were:

Anduril

General Atomics

Lockheed Martin

Northrop Grumman

RTX Collins Aerospace

Shield AI
Additionally, the Air Force has competitively awarded production options to Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace, and Shield AI, to accelerate the delivery of critical mission autonomy software.

“Mission autonomy is the cornerstone of the CCA concept, and leveraging a competitive, multi-vendor environment ensures we capture the latest technology,” Meink said. “This approach guarantees our Airmen are equipped with state-of-the-art capabilities today but keeps the door open for the breakthroughs necessary to maintain air superiority.”

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