Air Force names Anduril's Fury drone and outlines $10B CCA production plan
The Air Force officially named Anduril's Collaborative Combat Aircraft prototype the Fury and outlined plans to buy 500 of the stealthy autonomous drones by 2032, potentially worth $5 billion to Anduril in hardware alone.
What happened
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced that Anduril's FQ-44 prototype has been designated the Fury, while General Atomics' competing design is called Vengeance. The Air Force plans to purchase a total of 150 Fury and Vengeance drones in an initial production phase, rising to 500 units by 2032.
The Air Force has asked both contractors to build the drones for an average of $20 million per unit. If split evenly, that translates to roughly $5 billion in hardware revenue for Anduril over the program's lifetime. The Fury contract is only part of Anduril's potential earnings: the company has already won a separate award for developing the autonomy software that allows the drones to fly without direct human control, and it is on a shortlist of six companies bidding for additional software work covering sensors, communications, and weapons systems.
Background
The Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, or CCA, aims to pair relatively affordable autonomous jet fighters with crewed fighter aircraft. Pilots in manned jets would control and direct the unmanned drones toward higher-risk missions, keeping human pilots safer. Three months before this announcement, the Air Force had awarded prototype contracts to General Atomics and Anduril. The two companies are now moving toward full production, with the Air Force planning to scale up from prototypes to a fleet of 500 operational aircraft.
What to watch next
Watch for Air Force decisions on exactly how many Fury drones will be purchased in Increment 1 production and at what timeline. Additional announcements are expected on the winners of the software bidding round. Flight tests and operational evaluations of the prototypes will likely occur over the next two years.
Sources
- Original report: Anduril's $5 Billion Air Force Contract Finally Has a Name (Yahoo Finance, Sep 26, 2026) Mainstream media
- fool.com: Anduril's $5 Billion Air Force Contract Finally Has a Name Other outlet
Written by Anduril News with AI assistance from the original report and other coverage, in plain English. It can contain mistakes; check the original for anything important. How we write these.
