Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury has flown in formation with F-35s during US Air Force testing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada, advancing the service’s collaborative combat aircraft effort. The flights took place during a July exercise and involved the Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit, while the Fury operated under its own mission autonomy system rather than being controlled by a crewed fighter.
The testing placed the autonomous aircraft in shared airspace with other CCAs and crewed platforms, an early indicator of how the service plans to integrate uncrewed combat aircraft with fifth-generation fighters. The Air Force has publicly identified the production aircraft as Fury as it pushes ahead with capability development for the programme.
The YFQ-44A is among the Air Force’s leading autonomous combat aircraft projects and is being developed for manned-unmanned teaming across future air combat operations. Flying alongside F-35s is a key step toward validating safe formation operations, even as direct control from the fighter has yet to occur.