Defense company Anduril Industries says it recently began flight-testing its YFQ-44A combat drone, an unmanned, autonomous aircraft designed to fly alongside crewed fighter jets.
“As YFQ-44A climbs higher, we’re proving that it doesn’t merely look like a fighter, but that it performs like one,” the Costa Mesa-based company says on its website.
Anduril says it took only 556 days from “clean-sheet” design to wheels-up. The company expects to begin prototype production of the aircraft at its Arsenal-1 mega factory outside Columbus, Ohio, starting in the first half of 2026.
Anduril is competing for a spot in the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program,.
Rival General Atomics’ YFQ-42A prototype achieved its first flight in August, the U.S. Air Force said at the time.
The Air Force has been partnering in the development of the two companies’ aircraft.
For further details, see the Nov. 10 edition of the Business Journal.
