NEW YORK — Defense tech startup Anduril’s prototype bid for the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program achieved its first flight, the service announced today.
The YFQ-44A drone flew “at a California test location” at an undisclosed time today, the Air Force said in a press release. The drone is the second to reach the flight testing stage for the Air Force’s drone wingman program, following General Atomics’s YFQ-42A that took off for the first time in August.
“This milestone demonstrates how competition drives innovation and accelerates delivery,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in the release. “These flights are giving us the hard data we need to shape requirements, reduce risk, and ensure the CCA program delivers combat capability on a pace and scale that keeps us ahead of the threat.”
The YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A were picked for the CCA program last year, and are expected to join Air Force aircraft in battle for roles such as carrying additional munitions. A parallel effort is developing the drones’ autonomy, where Breaking Defense previously reported Shield AI and RTX have advanced. The Air Force expects to award a production contract to one or more potential vendors, including outside entrants, for the first round of the CCA program in fiscal 2026.
“We designed YFQ-44A for a specific Air Force mission: to enhance survivability, lethality, and mission effectiveness by teaming with crewed fighter aircraft or operating independently,” Jason Levin, Anduril’s senior vice president of engineering, air dominance and strike, said in a short essay released by the company about the drone’s first flight. “Through flight testing, Anduril and the Air Force are developing those collaborative, manned-unmanned teaming concepts and tactics that will inform how we integrate, fight with, and sustain truly autonomous aircraft.”
In a briefing with reporters, Levin declined to provide additional details about the first flight, including where the length of the flight, the configuration of the aircraft or whether any issues were discovered during the flight.
“We’ve shown the airplane works. We’ve shown the autonomy works; the software brain that powers it works,” he said. “We have a lot to do in terms of proving out the speed, maneuverability, autonomy, stealth, weapon systems integration and more.”
Anduril has already begun integrating weapons onboard the YFQ-44A and will conduct its first live shot next year, said Levin, who declined to provide specifics on the weapons testing process. During 2026, the company will also begin working with the Air Force to develop tactics for the YFQ-44A, conduct autonomous flights with multiple drones as well as with crewed fighter, and operate outside of test locations for the first time.
Along with continued development work by their respective vendors, both the YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A are expected to undergo additional trials at Edwards Air Force Base in California, a key hub of the service’s flight testing. The Air Force has also previously said that “operational assessments” are anticipated by the service’s Experimental Operations Unit at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, which will refine ways to employ the drones.
Beale Air Force Base in California will further host the CCA program’s first “aircraft readiness unit,” which will maintain the drones to ensure they are “fly-ready” and can “deploy worldwide at a moment’s notice.”
The Air Force recently disclosed in an unclassified document that the service is treating the F-22 Raptor as the “threshold platform” for CCA integration, but that other fighters like the F-35, F-47 and potentially more in the service’s inventory could be paired with drone wingmen too.
The ongoing government shutdown prompted fears from Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey that the YFQ-44A’s first flight would be delayed. The Air Force later said it was shielding the CCA program from the shutdown’s effects to “avoid any potential delay.”
Updated 10/31/25 at 5:16 pm ET with comment from Levin.
