The United States Air Force has successfully completed a series of critical tests with the Fury semi-autonomous drone developed by Anduril Industries, one of the new generation American arms companies that has come to be worth more than 60 billion dollars today.
The Air Force's Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) tested that the new device could be operated by a small team without heavy infrastructure around. The drone is part of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program and promises to radically change the way of air combat, writes the profile publication DefenseNews.com.
The YFQ-44A Fury drone was tested at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The technicians verified the launch, recovery and rearming capability of the device in semi-autonomous conditions.
For this drone, Anduril eliminated the need for a pilot on the ground with a joystick and stick for the duration of the mission. Basically, operators initially used a laptop to upload mission plans and parameters, and the drone performed the runway run, takeoff, required operations and return to base by itself.
The maintenance team was also able to prepare the unmanned aircraft between flights in just a few hours, after minimal training, the cited publication writes
What the “loyal wing” can do: Fury drone capabilities
The Fury is designed as a “loyal wing” (Eng. Loyal wingman) for manned fighter jets such as the F-35 or F-22. Specifically, it's designed to work closely with the fighter jets it accompanies and augment their roles, whether it's gathering intelligence, spotting targets, carrying extra munitions, and even executing strikes at the pilots' command.
The device executes mission plans independently and handles flight control and engine tuning by itself. At the end of the mission, the drone returns to base and lands on command.
The drone uses a software system called Lattice that allows the drone to perceive its environment and quickly integrate a lot of information from a whole network of sensors, either on the aircraft or on other aircraft or on the ground.
The Fury makes tactical decisions and coordinates actions with other aircraft, can identify threats and prioritize targets at speeds impossible for a human, and the open architecture allows for rapid change of missions: one day, the drone can fight in air-to-air missions, and the next day it can be doing electronic warfare or intelligence gathering missions.
A mini-hunter with record autonomy
The YFQ-44A Fury is a drone similar in design to a state-of-the-art fighter jet, but smaller, about half the size of an F-16.
Its configuration includes rearward-sloping trapezoidal wings, a nose-mounted air intake, a single vertical stabilizer, as well as fixed underwing munitions attachment points.
The aircraft is designed to fly at an altitude of up to 15,000 m and at a subsonic speed of Mach 0.95, being capable of overloads of up to 9G.
The Fury is powered by a single Williams FJ44-4M turbofan engine producing 17.8 kN thrust and has a maximum take-off weight of 2,270 kg.
The first flight took place on October 31, 2025, and Anduril announced that it intends to start mass production as early as 2026.
- Flight range: Over 15 hours.
- Maximum speed: Mach 0.95 (transonic speed).
- Flight ceiling: About 15,000 meters (50,000 feet).
- Propulsion: A Williams FJ44-4M turbofan engine.
- Maneuverability: Withstands overloads up to 9G
- Armament: It can carry AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles on 2 external attachment points.
- Maximum take-off weight: About 2,270 kg
- Length: 6.1 meters
- Width: 5.2 meters
The US Air Force announced in April 2024 that Anduril Industries and the company General Automatics were selected to design and build this first batch of escort drones for fifth-generation fighter jets such as the F-22 or F-35, as well as the upcoming sixth-generation F-47.
Anduril began flight testing in October 2025 and announced production of the YFQ-44A Fury CCA in March 2026. General Automatics announced that ground testing began in May 2025.
While it's not yet clear how many YFQ-44A drones the Air Force has ordered from defense companies, the Pentagon has said it wants a fleet of at least 1,000 such devices for tasks such as conducting strike missions, conducting operations and flying alongside manned aircraft such as the F-22, F-35 and F-47 fighter jets. The Air Force is expected to make a decision later this year.
Anduril, the new American player on the arms market that has grown rapidly in recent years
Anduril Industries was founded in 2017 by several American tech entrepreneurs and specializes in defense systems based on artificial intelligence, autonomous drones and advanced sensors. It started as a tech startup, but in a very short time it grew exponentially. As of June 2025, the company had a market value of $30 billion. Today, it is worth more than 60 billion dollars.
The company is named after the famous sword Narsil / Andúril from the writings of British author JRR Tolkien, also seen in the Lord of the Rings films as the weapon given to Aragorn by the elves in the very first feature film.
The company was founded by Palmer Luckey, a famous virtual reality entrepreneur. He created Oculus VR in 2021 and the company was bought by Facebook in 2014 for two billion dollars.
In just eight years, Anduril won several contracts with the Pentagon, including the development of an autonomous fighter jet, called Fury, but also numerous drone systems that rely on AI functions.
Anduril has close ties to financiers and technology advisers to President Donald Trump, and the company's advantage is that it can produce various weapons, as well as defense systems, at much lower prices and in much shorter time than the giants of the defense industry.
Anduril also develops software solutions that integrate sensors, drones, radars, cameras, satellites – all in a common interface, and the company uses artificial intelligence for analysis and quick decision, suggesting actions to operators or activating automatic reactions.
