The U.S. Air Force has officially named its first Collaborative Combat Aircraft as FQ-42 Vengeance and FQ-44 Fury, with Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink unveiling the designations during his keynote at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. The move gives public-facing identities to General Atomics’ and Anduril’s uncrewed combat aircraft as the service pushes the programme from development into its next phase.
The naming comes alongside a more ambitious force-structure goal for the CCA effort. Meink outlined a plan for at least 500 autonomous aircraft in service by 2032, underscoring the Air Force’s intention to build a much larger uncrewed combat fleet over time. The service’s broader target remains roughly 1,000 combat-ready semi-autonomous systems, with the first aircraft expected to support crewed fighters and other missions in contested environments.
General Atomics’ FQ-42 had previously been referred to internally as Dark Merlin, while Fury had already been used by Anduril for its aircraft. The public naming now standardises the Air Force’s branding as the programme advances beyond prototype status and closer to operational planning and production.