Anduril's YFQ-44A Fury completed captive carry testing with an inert AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile 1. Captive carry — mounting a live-geometry weapon and flying with it without release — is a standard weapons integration step that validates aerodynamic compatibility, pylon loading, and avionics interface. Live-fire demonstrations are planned for later in 2026.
The Fury competes against General Atomics' YFQ-42A Dark Merlin and Northrop Grumman's YFQ-48A Talon Blue for the Air Force's initial CCA production contract. Congress allocated $680 million for the programme, with a selection expected this fiscal year.
The CCA programme requires an autonomous wingman cheap enough to be attritable — acceptable to lose in combat — yet capable enough to carry and employ real weapons alongside crewed fighters. General Atomics built the MQ-9 Reaper line that defined military drone operations for two decades. Northrop Grumman developed the X-47B, the first autonomous aircraft to complete an arrested landing on an aircraft carrier. Both bring extensive weapons integration pedigree on unmanned platforms. Anduril has neither heritage — but it has Arsenal-1 , already producing Fury airframes.
The $680 million initial allocation is modest by combat aircraft standards. The programme's long-term value, if CCA scales to equip fighter squadrons across the Air Force as intended, runs to tens of billions. The selection will determine whether the Pentagon weighs combat aviation heritage or manufacturing velocity more heavily when the two compete directly for the same contract.
