U.S. Air Force Selects General Atomics and Anduril for First Collaborative Combat Aircraft

U.S. Air Force selected General Atomics and Anduril to build the first Collaborative Combat Aircraft on June 17. The service also chose Anduril, Shield AI, and RTX subsidiary Collins Aerospace to continue competing for the autonomy software contract.

Col. Timothy Helfrich, portfolio acquisition executive for Fighters & Advanced Aircraft, spoke with reporters ahead of the announcement and called the award a major step forward for the service's future capabilities. The Air Force is keeping the total program cost obscured and declined to state the number of vehicles each hardware provider will be contracted for through the first of three production lots.

Helfrich stated that the CCA unit cost target of roughly one-third the cost of an F-35 is being met. 5 million, which would put the implied CCA unit cost target under $30 million. 4 billion for CCA drone development in fiscal 2027 and nearly $1 billion for procurement in the same year.

U.S. Air Force announcement.