Anduril has begun flight testing YFQ-44A Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) for the CCA Program. During the flight testing, Anduril will test to see if YFQ-44A is up to standard in terms of speed, manoeuvrability, autonomy, stealth, range, weapons systems integration, and more.
“Airplanes are an emotional experience. It’s more than engineering or manufacturing. Aviation writ-large, going all the way back to Orville and Wilbur, is emotional. And we’ve felt that through this project," Anduril SVP of Engineering, Air Dominance & Strike, Jason Levin, said.
Anduril has designed YFQ-44A for a specific Air Force mission: to enhance survivability, lethality, and mission effectiveness by teaming with crewed fighter aircraft or operating independently.
Through flight testing, Anduril and the Air Force have developed collaborative, manned-unmanned teaming concepts and tactics that will inform how they integrate, fight with, and sustain truly autonomous aircraft.
According to Anduril, it has been 556 days from "clean-sheet" to flight testing and the first semi-autonomous flight for the YFQ-44A. The aircraft was not designed to be a remotely-piloted aircraft.
All taxi and flight tests have been conducted semi-autonomous. According to the company, the CCA has executed mission plans of its own, managed flight control and throttle adjustment independent of human command, and returned to land at the push of a button, all under the eye of an operator “on the loop” but not in it.
The CCA possesses a fully integrated weapon system that has identified targets and commands effects. On the ground, YFQ-44A’s software backbone has tracked and managed maintenance, vehicle health, and other things.
Anduril has also built and tested a new type of production system for YFQ-44A, the common software backbone called ArsenalOS. This has allowed the company to allegedly multiple the effects of the thousands of design-for-manufacturing decisions made during the development of YFQ-44A.