Anduril readies to demonstrate CCA’s ‘manned-unmanned teaming’
AIAA AVIATION Forum, San Diego — Anduril Industries’ Fury, the company’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft, is slated to soon fly with other CCA platforms and with piloted aircraft, according to the company’s chief engineer for the program.
Tyler Gavin told the audience here the company’s CCA prototype is preparing to move into live-fire demonstrations.
“We’ll be starting that very soon here,” he said. “The plan later this year is to start flying multiple Furys and multiple of the other CCA platforms that the Air Force has invested in multi-ship together — so them speaking to one another, flying, conducting missions.”
“Then shortly after that, we’ll step into the manned-unmanned teaming,” he continued.
The Air Force’s CCA program is meant to produce a fleet of uncrewed aircraft — sometimes dubbed “loyal wingmen” — that can team with piloted fighters, bolstering the service’s capabilities at a lower price.
The service in 2024 chose Anduril and General Atomics to produce prototypes; an Increment 1 production decision is expected this fiscal year. In February, the Air Force confirmed the program had “entered the next phase of developmental testing” and was “initiating disciplined weapons integration and captive carry evaluations using inert test munitions to validate airworthiness, safety and systems performance.”
In parallel, Gavin said Anduril is also focused on being able to produce the aircraft at scale.
“You can’t just take five or 10 of these to the field,” he said. “CCA as a program was designed to bring hundreds of these to force-multiply our force in theater.”
Anduril, which has built a production facility in Columbus, Ohio, wants to be ready to build hundreds, he said.
“Right now, we have a couple of aircraft in the prototype phase getting built there,” Gavin added. “Later this year, we’ll be starting to build the production vehicles, and the facility is capable of building 150 a year.”
