An F-22 Pilot Directed Anduril’s YFQ-44A Fury Drone in Flight for the First Time

An F-22 Raptor pilot took in-flight tactical control of an Anduril YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) earlier this month, the Air Force announced on October 16, 2026. The pilot acted as an airborne “quarterback,” sending high-level tactical directives to a single drone.

The YFQ-44A’s onboard autonomy software interpreted those directives and carried them out in real time, flying dynamic maneuvers and simulated combat tasks, according to the Air Force release. The service did not give the date of the flight.

Anduril filled in some of the gaps. The company said the flight took place out of Edwards Air Force Base, California, during the week of October 5, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.

Both aircraft took off from Edwards and joined up in the air. The Raptor pilot then sent the Fury an updated mission plan over a tactical data link, and the mission lasted multiple hours, according to Mark Shushnar, Anduril’s vice president of autonomous airpower.

“This flight shows the power of crewed-uncrewed teaming and the advantage it provides our warfighters,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said in the release.

What the “First” Covers

The Air Force release does not call the flight a first. An Anduril spokesperson told TWZ that it was a first for an F-22 and a pre-production YFQ-44A.

It is not the first time a Raptor pilot has commanded a drone in flight. On October 21, 2025, an F-22 pilot controlled a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger from a cockpit tablet over the Nevada Test and Training Range, using L3Harris radios, General Atomics said.

General Atomics said in February 2026 that an F-22 had again sent commands to an MQ-20, this time out of Edwards with government reference autonomy software. The Avenger, though, is a surrogate that stands in for a CCA, not one of the two types the Air Force is buying.

The Fury itself had already flown alongside F-35s. Anduril stressed at the time that those fighters were not yet issuing it commands in mid-air, TWZ reported.

Why the Raptor Goes First

The F-22 Raptor is expected to be the first fighter to control CCAs once they enter service. The Air Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request asked for kits, including “tablets, cables, and associated materials,” to let F-22s control the drones, TWZ reported.

Neither the Air Force nor Anduril has said how the test jet was configured, TWZ noted. Tablet-style interfaces have drawn questions about pilot workload, especially in single-seat fighters like the F-22.

The quarterback model is what makes that workload manageable. The pilot does not fly the drone with a stick; they hand it an intent, such as a new route or a task, and the drone’s software works out how to fly it.

That split is what would let one pilot run several drones at once. This test involved one aircraft, but the Air Force eventually wants each fighter pilot able to control multiple CCAs as a formation, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported.

The flight drew on several units, including the 412th Test Wing, the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, the 309th Software Engineering Group, the Experimental Operations Unit and the F-22 System Program Office. The Air Force said it will use the data to shape software integration, developmental testing and future CCA concepts.

Where the CCA Program Stands

The Fury is one of two aircraft in Increment 1, the program’s first phase, alongside General Atomics’ FQ-42. In June, the Air Force put 150 of them into production, and on September 14 it named them Vengeance and Fury.

The aircraft in this test still carries the YFQ-44A designation, where the Y marks a prototype. Production aircraft drop it and become FQ-44As.

The Air Force says it intends to have 500 combat-ready CCAs by 2032, in an eventual fleet of 1,000. The goal is a cheap, semi-autonomous wingman: the air vehicle is meant to cost no more than $20 million, excluding sensors and weapons, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.

What Comes Next

The next big step is a crowded sky. Fury and Vengeance are due at Exercise Emerald Flag in December, their first large-force exercise, an Experimental Operations Unit officer said in September, according to TWZ.

That follows the first CCA field exercise at Creech in Nevada this summer. When an F-22 will direct an FQ-42 in flight has not been announced.