Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American first, this time beating out major defense companies to develop and test prototypes of small unmanned combat aircraft.
The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in the deal, part of the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. General Atomics was the other honoree from the group of five.
Anduril and General Atomics will design, build and test “representative production test items” as part of the contract, the Air Force said in a statement. Ultimately, the Air Force will make a final multibillion-dollar production decision in fiscal year 2026 and have fully operational aircraft from suppliers before the end of the decade. It is unclear whether the Air Force will choose more than one company to deliver production aircraft.
The deal could prove very lucrative for Anduril: Ultimately, the CCA program aims to deliver at least 1,000 fighter jets, which will fly in coordination with manned platforms, such as the F-35, and deliver their own weapons. The CCA program is part of an Air Force initiative called Next Generation Air Dominance. The goal is to modernize the entire fleet of flying systems, including piloted aircraft (Boeing and Lockheed are still in development for manned systems contracts).
At the heart of Anduril’s victory is the Fury, an autonomous aircraft it acquired when it bought North Carolina-based Blue Force Technologies last year. Anduril went from acquiring the technology to winning a major defense award with it in less than a year.
The seven-year-old startup was valued at $8.5 billion by investors including Founders Fund in 2022 when it announced a $1.48 billion Series E. Anduril’s 31-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey, has been outspoken about reversing the zero-sum paradigm that dominated defense spending—that is, the defense first wins and the taxpayer loses—by building cheaper assets at a much faster rate while still generating handsome revenue for its backers.
“Anduril’s work on this program is just beginning,” Anduril vice president Jason Levin said in a statement. “U.S. and allied success in the future requires CCAs to be delivered at speed, cost and scale to defeat the pace threat. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the US Air Force to deliver this critical capability to our Airmen as quickly as possible.”
