The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday awarded production contracts ​to General Atomics and Anduril Industries to build its first fleet ‌of semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), moving a program that began just over two years ago from prototype to full-scale manufacturing. The department awarded production contracts to both companies — General ​Atomics for the FQ-42 and Anduril for the FQ-44, the Air ​Force said, without disclosing the cost or size of the ⁠order. The CCA program is central to the Air Force’s broader vision ​of human-machine teaming, pairing the autonomous aircraft with crewed fighters to extend reach, ​awareness, and survivability in contested environments. The Air Force ultimately intends to field about 1,000 combat-capable CCA, using continuous competition among vendors to drive down costs while scaling fighter ​capacity.

Full report : Air Force picks Anduril, General Atomics to build first operational CCA drones.