The YFQ-44A has carried out its first captive carry evaluations with an inert AIM-120 AMRAAM missile because the U.S. Air Pressure entered the weapons integration testing part of the Collaborative Fight Plane program.
On Feb. 23, 2026, the U.S. Air Pressure launched the primary photograph of an Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury “fighter drone” carrying an AIM-120 AMRAAM (Superior Medium Vary Air-to-Air Missile) throughout an undated captive carry check.
The check was performed as a part of the weapons integration part of the Air Pressure’s Collaborative Fight Plane program, which employs inert munitions to methodically validate integration, structural efficiency, and security, guaranteeing the platform can safely carry exterior shops: aerodynamic efficiency and structural integrity are extensively evaluated underneath totally different circumstances to verify the compatibility between the exterior shops and the plane forward of dwell employments.
The usage of inert check weapons permits engineers and check pilots to judge efficiency traits and separation security in a managed surroundings with out dwell ordnance.
Though the accompanying caption doesn’t specify the place the photograph was taken, mentioning solely a “California check location,” the picture was nearly actually taken at Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California, the place the sort additionally performed its first flight on Oct. 31, 2025.
We’re shifting with urgency & function to ship game-changing capabilities to our warfighters. CCA inert captive carry testing is a deliberate step in our plan to construct a extra deadly & built-in @usairforce. pic.twitter.com/2OQDKd9A2n
— Normal Ken Wilsbach (@OfficialCSAF) February 24, 2026
“We’re following the identical detailed strategy utilized in each different plane developmental check program to validate structural efficiency, flight traits and secure separation,” mentioned Air Pressure Chief of Workers Gen. Ken Wilsbach in a public launch. “This ensures the CCA can safely combine inert weapons earlier than future employment.”
The CCA program goals to ship reasonably priced, risk-tolerant unmanned methods designed to function alongside piloted fighters as power multipliers in what, up to now, has usually been known as a “loyal wingman” situation: on this function, autonomous plane can function as a part of a human-machine group, extending the attain, survivability and effectiveness of crewed platforms in missions performed in contested that might in any other case place the lifetime of human pilots in danger.
“CCA is a important half of a bigger, built-in system-of-systems that can give our warfighters the overwhelming benefit,” Wilsbach mentioned. “This program is about delivering a community of results that can sense, strike and defend our forces in contested environments. We’re empowering our groups to take sensible dangers and ship this functionality sooner, guaranteeing we are able to deter, and if vital, defeat any adversary.”
All through improvement and testing, a human retains authority over weapons launch selections. CCA is designed to function inside established command buildings and authorized frameworks that govern all Air Pressure weapons methods.
To this point, no photos have been launched of the opposite design underneath improvement as a part of the primary part, or Increment 1, of the CCA program, Normal Atomics’ YFQ-42A Darkish Merlin prototype carrying any munition.
Right here’s what we wrote about CCA in a earlier story we revealed at The Aviationist after the YFQ-44A efficiently performed its first flight:
The event of the autonomous methods has superior extra quickly than anticipated, main some to recommend that NGAD’s crewed fighter may not be as important as initially deliberate. The mixture of CCAs with manned platforms just like the F-35 and F-15EX might present a extra reasonably priced and versatile resolution to reaching air superiority.
The rise of CCAs displays the Air Pressure’s shifting priorities, the place a system-of-systems strategy might take priority over a singular deal with a high-cost manned fighter. The mix of manned and unmanned methods additionally permits for larger flexibility and the potential to deploy belongings in additional distributed and resilient methods.
The Air Pressure is quickly advancing the event of CCAs, with plans to start deploying over 150 items within the subsequent 5 years. These autonomous methods might tackle a variety of missions, from surveillance to direct fight, working as power multipliers in collaboration with manned platforms and taking up high-risk missions historically carried out by manned fighters.
Not like legacy fighters, CCAs characteristic modular designs, enabling speedy upgrades and streamlined upkeep. The modular design and open structure, the latter changing into a staple within the design of recent army plane, permits to introduce new capabilities as they develop into obtainable, permitting in flip to at all times discipline the most recent applied sciences to maintain an edge over quickly evolving battlefields.
In early 2024, Anduril Industries and Normal Atomics had been awarded contracts to design and check production-ready CCAs, marking a pivotal step in this system. Each corporations are growing these unmanned plane to assist each the upcoming NGAD fighters, in addition to present F-35s and different manned plane, by sharing sensor knowledge, executing coordinated maneuvers, and probably finishing up fight roles.
In early 2025, U.S. Air Pressure’s Chief of Workers, Normal David Allvin, introduced the official designation of the primary two CCAs. The 2 plane by Normal Atomics and Anduril have been named YFQ-42A and YFQ-44A, respectively, marking the primary use of the ‘Unmanned Fighter’ designation by the USAF.
“Now we have two prototypes of Collaborative Fight Plane that had been on paper lower than a few years in the past,” Allvin mentioned. “For the primary time in our historical past, we’ve a fighter designation within the YFQ-42 Alpha and the YFQ-44 Alpha – possibly simply symbolic, but it surely’s telling the world that we’re leaning into a brand new chapter of aerial warfare.”
The Air Pressure is planning to discipline a various fleet of over 1,000 CCAs, designed with modular configurations for weaponry, sensor capabilities, and speedy adaptability to mission wants. One notable development in 2024 was the first flight of the XQ-67A, a low-cost drone designed by Normal Atomics underneath the Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program, which occurred in February 2024.
This platform, together with the sooner XQ-58A Valkyrie, demonstrates a “widespread chassis” idea—utilizing shared parts for varied drone fashions to streamline manufacturing and scale back prices. This strategy goals to supply a scalable, cost-effective resolution for enhancing fight capability with out counting on high-cost crewed jets, which is crucial given the Air Pressure’s finances constraints and strategic emphasis on distributed, resilient forces.
“A aggressive Increment 1 manufacturing choice is anticipated in fiscal yr 2026,” says the Air Pressure, “with improvement for Increment 2 starting that very same yr to develop mission purposes and combine rising applied sciences.”
