# Anduril Air Force CCA Production Contract On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Air Force selected [[Anduril]] for the **production phase** of its [[Collaborative Combat Aircraft]] (CCA) program, moving the [[Anduril Fury]] out of prototyping and into serial production as the **FQ-44A**. The Air Force awarded production contracts to both [[Anduril]] (FQ-44) and [[General Atomics]] (FQ-42A "Dark Merlin"), committing to a first tranche of roughly **150 aircraft** under Increment 1 with deliveries expected before the end of the decade. It is Anduril's largest air-vehicle program win to date and the clearest demand signal behind its [[Arsenal-1]] mega-factory. ## Deal Mechanics The award covers the initial production of FQ-44A air vehicles for continued testing, validation, and operational fielding, ahead of a wider production ramp. The Air Force announced the decision roughly four months ahead of schedule and did not disclose a contract value. Third-party trackers (Defence Insight) estimated the near-term procurement at around **$4.5 billion**, with total Increment 1 procurement plus development valued near **$8.9 billion** — figures that are outside estimates, not official award values. A parallel **mission-autonomy software** competition runs alongside the air-vehicle awards: [[Anduril]], [[Shield AI]] (Hivemind), and RTX subsidiary Collins Aerospace were kept in contention to supply the CCA's collaborative-autonomy stack (see the sister deal [[Shield AI Air Force CCA Production Contract]]). Anduril's own [[Anduril Lattice]] / autonomy software is its entrant. ## Speed Anduril has billed the timeline as the fastest for a fighter-class aircraft in over 50 years: an April 2024 Increment 1 award, a first flight in October 2025, and a production decision in June 2026 — roughly 26 months from award to production. The [[Arsenal-1]] line in Ohio is rated to build up to ~150 aircraft per year at full three-shift capacity, matching the Increment 1 quantity. ## Significance This is the procurement-layer payoff of Anduril's "startup-as-prime" thesis in the air-vehicle domain, placing a venture-backed challenger opposite an incumbent drone prime ([[General Atomics]]) on a flagship Air Force autonomy program. It extends Anduril's 2026 run of enterprise-scale federal wins alongside the [[Anduril $20B Army Contract]] and [[Anduril Golden Dome Participation]], and — because it converts [[Arsenal-1]] from a bet into a funded production line — it underwrites the manufacturing story behind the company's $61B post–[[Anduril Series H]] valuation. A far larger **Increment 2** (reported up to ~2,350 additional aircraft) is the upside the split-fleet structure is designed to feed. The undisclosed value is the main caveat: the strategic signal (prototype → funded production) is confirmed, but the dollar scale rests on third-party estimates until official obligation data appears on USASpending. ## See Also - [[Anduril]] - [[Anduril Fury]] - [[Collaborative Combat Aircraft]] - [[Arsenal-1]] - [[General Atomics]] - [[Shield AI Air Force CCA Production Contract]] - [[U.S. Air Force]] - [[Palmer Luckey]] - [[Anduril $20B Army Contract]] - [[Anduril Contracts]] - [[Anduril Events]]