Collaborative Combat Aircraft

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) programme is the US Air Force's initiative to develop autonomous drone wingmen that can fly alongside crewed fighters, extending their sensor range, drawing enemy fire, or delivering weapons without a pilot aboard. Congress allocated $680 million for the programme's current phase. Two main competitors have emerged: Anduril's YFQ-44A Fury, the first new USAF aircraft designation in decades, which began production at Arsenal-1 in Columbus, Ohio in early 2026; and Shield AI's Hivemind autonomy software, selected for the CCA prototype programme in February 2026.

The programme's unusual structure is that hardware and software are being evaluated semi-independently. Hivemind has already flown on the YFQ-44A Fury in a confirmed mid-air software switch, meaning two organisations competing for the same programme have validated interoperability. If the Air Force mandates software portability between CCA vehicles, Hivemind could become a DoD-wide autonomy standard regardless of which airframe wins the production contract. Anduril's vertical integration, manufacturing its own hardware and software, is a structural hedge against that outcome.

The CCA programme is also the most significant test of whether the US defence industrial base can produce autonomous combat aircraft at the pace and cost structure that Ukraine's drone warfare experience implies is operationally necessary. Arsenal-1's early opening, manufacturing 150 Fury aircraft per year at full capacity, is Anduril's primary argument that it alone can meet programme-of-record production requirements.