Anduril rolls out first YFQ-44A unmanned aircraft just four months after production start

Anduril’s first Ohio-built unmanned, semi-autonomous aircraft rolled off the production line on Monday, just four months after production began.

The defense company’s first YFQ-44A was manufactured at its Pickaway County, Ohio, facility, known as Arsenal-1, according to a social media post. Anduril first announced the facility’s construction in January 2025 and had originally slated first product manufacturing to begin in July 2026.

In January 2026, Anduril declared that its first product would be the YFQ-44A, a missionized variant of the company’s FQ-44, or “Fury,” autonomous fighter jet, developed for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program.

The $1 billion, 5-million-square-foot facility is located near Rickenbacker International Airport and is expected to add 4,000 jobs to the region.

Recent Milestones

The aircraft’s production follows the Air Force’s first-ever live-fire test with its CCA, conducted two weeks earlier. During that test, the YFQ-44A executed an end-to-end, beyond-line-of-sight strike against a simulated target using an inert AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile.

On the same day Anduril announced the aircraft’s production, the Air Force also revealed the completion of a recent Agile Combat Employment exercise showcasing CCA operations at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada.

“Air superiority in today’s increasingly contested environments requires the rapid fielding of affordable mass,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach in a release. “CCA are essential to this effort. By integrating uncrewed systems to fly alongside our Airmen, we extend reach and increase lethality.”

The multi-day exercise, conducted by the CCA Experimental Operations Unit (EOU), aimed to develop foundational tactics, techniques, and procedures for integrating the aircraft into the force. The EOU completed multiple sorties, integrated with manned platforms in local airspace, and simulated various scenarios.

“Our test teams can continuously use these warfighter-run exercises to gather and analyze data that aids in informed CCA fielding decisions well ahead of the normal process to deliver combat capability when needed by our Air Force and the Nation,” said Brig. Gen. Jesse Friedel, commander of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, whose team members observed the event.

Human Control and Trust

Air Force officials have consistently stated that any decision to deploy munitions remains with the human operator, who retains control and command of the platform at all times, despite the aircraft being unmanned and semi-autonomous.

In a recent roundtable, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said that building trust between human operators and autonomous systems begins with computerized, man-in-the-loop simulations and training exercises, such as Red Flag at Nellis.

Contract and Production Outlook

The Air Force awarded CCA contracts last month to Anduril and General Atomics for their YFQ-44A and YFQ-42A, respectively.

The service has targeted 100 to 150 aircraft in the program’s first increment, with a longer-term goal of fielding 1,000 CCAs.

As of Tuesday, Anduril had not announced the number of YFQ-44As the facility will produce, but the production line has the capacity to build 150 aircraft each year.

About the Author

Cristina Stassis is a reporter covering the defense industry, national security, military and veteran affairs, and related topics. She previously worked as an editorial fellow for Defense News in 2024, assisting the newsroom with breaking news across Sightline Media Group.