World’s first two operational drone fighters will be American

It’s official: the world’s first two operational drone fighters will be American, and there will be two different kinds of them.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Air Force announced that it would be putting Anduril’s YFQ-44 Fury and General Atomics’ YFQ-42 Dark Merlin into operational service.

Low-rate initial production is already underway for both of these advanced drone wingmen, known officially as collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA.

In this context, the “F” prefix stands for fighter, meaning these aircraft are designed specifically for air-to-air combat, while the “Q” prefix indicates that the platform is uncrewed.

“Collaborative Combat Aircraft change how we project power and generate mass in highly contested environments,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach. “Delivering this capability to our warfighters faster ensures our forces maintain the tactical edge required to deter and, if necessary, defeat any adversary.”

These two drone fighter designs were selected for testing as part of Increment One of the Air Force’s CCA program. The focus is set squarely on delivering proven capabilities quickly, and in volume, specifically for the air-to-air combat mission. Subsequent increments will be selected to fill other specialized mission sets, like air-to-ground operations, electronic warfare, and more.

The forthcoming FQ-42 builds off of decades worth of drone experience from General Atomics: The firm is behind legendary uncrewed aircraft like the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-9 Reaper, and the stealthy, jet-powered MQ-20 Avenger, not to mention lesser-known experimental platforms like the XQ-67 offboard sensing station aircraft developed for the Air Force Research Lab.

The first production representative prototype of the stealthy YFQ-42 Dark Merlin took flight in August 2025, and since then, several more have been built and added to the flight testing regime, though one crashed in April 2026.

A YFQ-44A production representative test vehicle is staged in a testing chamber at Costa Mesa, CA. The YFQ-44A, developed by Anduril, is one of two production representative test vehicles which will be critical in securing air dominance for the Joint Force in future conflicts, leveraging autonomous capabilities and crewed-uncrewed teaming to defeat enemy threats in contested environments. (Anduril)

Anduril’s new FQ-44 is a much smaller aircraft overall, with a wingspan that’s only about half the size of the Dark Merlin’s. This fighter drone started its development cycle as an aggressor drone designed to simulate the air combat performance of top-tier adversary fighters – like China’s J-20 and Russia’s Su-57 – for American pilots to train against.

In 2023, Anduril purchased the firm developing Fury, Blue Force Technologies, and transitioned its focus away from pretending to be a bad guy, and, instead, toward shooting them down. The first production-representative prototype of Fury took flight on Halloween Day 2025.

Both of these drones were developed specifically to fly under the control of any third-party autonomy software designed to meet the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture requirements. In other words, the Pentagon has separated the CCA hardware from the software, with six vendors continuing to develop the AI that will pilot the drones. These six vendors are Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Collins Aerospace, and Shield AI.

In the summer of 2027, the Air Force will ultimately choose one AI pilot, or agent, to permanently fly these autonomous warfighters. The drones are expected to enter service shortly thereafter.

Feature Image: General Atomics’s FQ-42 Dark Merlin (General Atomics via FlightGlobal)

Read more from Sandboxx News

A Marine who flew the F/A-18, F-16, F-22, and F-35 says one jet stood apart

More mystique than results: The legacy of Russia’s Wagner Group

SOCOM wants to double the range of its M4 rifles, but that won’t be easy

Attack on FOB 4: The worst day in U.S. Army Special Forces history

Army still questing for a lighter shoulder-launched munition for urban combat