Collaborative Combat Aircraft: Drone Wingmen Wait on FY27 Money
The Air Force’s FQ-42 and FQ-44 drone wingmen are on contract for production, but a stopgap budget keeps procurement money from flowing until Congress acts.
The Air Force’s first Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) are built, flying and on contract for production. What they lack is money to buy them. Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) both said in late September that CCA production cannot begin without a fiscal year 2027 budget, Inside Defense reported on 28 September. The continuing resolution now in force holds Pentagon spending at FY2026 levels through 11 December and limits the department’s ability to start new programs such as CCA.
In June, the Air Force awarded engineering and manufacturing development and production contracts for CCA Increment 1 to GA-ASI for the FQ-42 and to Anduril for the FQ-44, according to the service. It said the awards came four months ahead of schedule. The FY2027 request was the first time the service asked Congress for money to buy CCA rather than only develop them, and the Air Force has not disclosed contract values or quantities per vendor.
What the drone wingmen are
The Congressional Research Service (CRS IF12740) describes CCA as large, jet-powered uncrewed aircraft meant to fly alongside crewed fighters. Possible missions include air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, electronic warfare, targeting, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Air Force officials have estimated a CCA might cost roughly one-third as much as a crewed fighter, CRS notes. According to Inside Defense, the service has said each Increment 1 aircraft costs less than about $20 million.
The two designs come from different starting points. CRS says GA-ASI based its bid on the XQ-67A experimental aircraft, which favored endurance over speed and maneuverability. Anduril’s design grew out of the Fury drone it acquired with Blue Force Technologies in 2023, and Anduril announced in January 2025 that it would build the aircraft at a new plant in Columbus, Ohio. The aircraft dropped their Y prefixes, becoming FQ-42A Vengeance and FQ-44A Fury, when they moved toward production, Military Times reported.
The Air Force is buying the software separately. It placed six companies in a six-year mission autonomy pool: Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI. Three of them, Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI, got production options for the first of two six-month competitive phases, the Air Force said. A single primary autonomy provider for Increment 1 is planned for selection by summer 2027. All vendors must comply with the government-owned Autonomy Government Reference Architecture, which the service says lets software move between aircraft.
Key facts at a glance
| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Increment 1 aircraft | GA-ASI FQ-42A Vengeance; Anduril FQ-44A Fury | Air Force |
| Contract type | EMD and production; first three lots; values and quantities not disclosed | Air Force; Inside Defense |
| Unit cost | Less than about $20 million each (Air Force figure) | Inside Defense |
| Fleet goals | Over 150 combat-capable CCA by end of decade; about 1,000 long term | Air Force |
| Mission autonomy | Six-vendor pool; primary Increment 1 provider by summer 2027 | Air Force |
| Testing | Both types at the Experimental Operations Unit, Creech AFB, Nevada | Inside Defense; Overt Defense |
| Weapons test | FQ-44 live-fired an AIM-120 AMRAAM in July | Inside Defense |
| FY2027 request | About $2.58 billion (procurement plus RDT&E) | CRS R49023 |
Table compiled by Peter’s World from the sources linked in each row.
Factories ready, funding stalled
Both contractors say they have capacity waiting. GA-ASI said it can now deliver six FQ-42s a month after finishing a new low-observable paint facility, and that it is building Vengeance aircraft with its own money “as government funding plans mature,” Overt Defense reported. Jason Levin, Anduril’s senior vice president of engineering, told reporters the company’s Arsenal-1 facility can produce up to 150 FQ-44s a year, and that current Air Force orders “aren’t quite there yet,” according to Inside Defense.
“We will not have a cold start to start production in [20]27. We will have assets rolling through,” Erin Simpson, Anduril’s vice president for strategy execution, said at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference. “That said, even a company like ours can only do so much without procurement dollars.” Brig. Gen. Timothy Helfrich, the Air Force’s portfolio acquisition executive for fighters, said at a Mitchell Institute event that “you can’t go do production without production funding,” Inside Defense reported.
The money at stake grows quickly. Inside Defense, citing Air Force plans, reported about $1 billion in discretionary CCA procurement for FY2027, $2.2 billion in FY2028, roughly $2 billion in each of FY2029 and FY2030, and $2.3 billion in FY2031. A CRS table of FY2027 weapon-system funding lists about $2.58 billion requested for CCA across procurement and research, about $2.44 billion in the House-passed defense authorization bill, $2.58 billion in the Senate Armed Services Committee bill and about $2.54 billion in the House Appropriations Committee bill. None of those has become law.
Testing has continued. Helfrich said operators at the Experimental Operations Unit fly “multiple sorties a day sometimes” alongside F-35s and F-22s, and that the FQ-42 is close to its own AMRAAM live-fire. Both types are due at the Emerald Flag exercise at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in December to test operations from dispersed, austere airfields.
Why it matters
Peter’s World analysis, based on the sources cited in this article.
CRS frames CCA as a bet on affordable mass: a fleet that has shrunk since the 1990s because crewed fighters are expensive, facing Chinese long-range missiles and air defenses built to deny U.S. air superiority. China is fielding its own uncrewed combat aircraft, as Peter’s World covered in China’s air drones and swarm claims. The Navy is pursuing a similar path alongside its new F/A-XX carrier fighter, while the Air Force keeps buying crewed jets such as the F-15EX Eagle II.
In our view, the CCA program shows that a fast acquisition decision does not guarantee a fast fielding date. The aircraft and factories are ahead of the budget process. If Congress passes another stopgap after 11 December, as Inside Defense notes it could, the Air Force’s goal of more than 150 combat-capable CCA by the end of the decade may get harder to meet, and contractors would carry more of the cost at their own risk.
What to watch: whether an FY2027 appropriations act passes before 11 December; how the Air Force splits orders between GA-ASI and Anduril; the FQ-42’s AMRAAM live-fire; results from Emerald Flag; the second autonomy competition phase; and Increment 2 awards.
Sources
- U.S. Air Force, Air Force advances future of air superiority with CCA contracts, 17 June 2026.
- Congressional Research Service, U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) (IF12740), updated 28 November 2025.
- Congressional Research Service, FY2027 Defense Budget: Funding for Selected Weapon Systems (R49023), updated 3 September 2026 (also EveryCRSReport mirror).
- Inside Defense, FY-27 funding purgatory puts CCA production at a standstill, 28 September 2026.
- Overt Defense, General Atomics says it can build six FQ-42 CCAs a month, 1 October 2026.
Additional sources
- Military Times: US Air Force awards first CCA production contracts, 18 June 2026: details on the Y-prefix change and the Air Force’s decision not to disclose contract values.
