Air Force picks General Atomics, Anduril to build first CCA drone wingmen

The service reiterates that open architecture software is fundamental for uncrewed fighter effort. The US Air Force has awarded production contracts to both Anduril and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) to produce its first generation of uncrewed combat jets. Anduril’s FQ-44 and GA-ASI’s FQ-42 received a contract award four months ahead of schedule under the USAF’s CCA (collaborative combat aircraft) Increment 1 competition, says the USAF. Previously, the USAF had said that a winner would be selected by the end of 2026 .

Air Force leaders have given initial production contracts to Anduril and General Atomics, which will both build collaborative combat aircraft based on their respective prototypes. Northrop Grumman’s self-financed offering was not selected. Several companies also received money to develop software that will compete to pilot the service’s future fleet of drone wingmen. The Increment 1 CCA contracts are for three lots of the drone wingmen, Air Force Col. Timothy Helfrich, the portfolio acquisition executive for fighters and advanced aircraft, told reporters during a briefing on Wednesday.

General Atomics and Anduril have received production contracts from the Air Force for Increment 1 of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft ( CCA ) program, the service announced Wednesday. The firms were each awarded engineering-and-manufacturing development and production contracts for the CCA air frames, beating out at least four other vendors that competed for deals. The contracts which come four months ahead of schedule cover the first three lots of unmanned aerial vehicles and will allow the service to field at least 150 systems by the end of the decade, according to Col.