FQ-42 Vengeance: Boeing’s Spirit Defense to Build Fuselages

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has named Spirit Defense, a Boeing company based in Wichita, Kansas, as the fuselage design and build partner for its FQ-42 Vengeance Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The San Diego firm states that it has been the sole manufacturer of its unmanned aircraft since its founding in 1992, making the October 23 announcement a significant departure. On the same day, Spirit Defense opened a 50,000 square foot facility in south Wichita, converted from a former tooling and factory support building, where the fuselages are to be produced. Neither company disclosed the value of the work or a delivery schedule, although officials at the opening stated that the fuselages had already moved on to the next phase of production. The move highlights how quickly the U.S. Air Force drone wingman effort has shifted from prototype flying to industrial volume, with the service seeking at least 500 such aircraft by 2032.

General Atomics stated that the partnership adds manufacturing capacity to accelerate production and reduces single points of failure in its supply chain. Spirit Defense President and Chief Executive Keith Schrader told local broadcaster KWCH that the new building “in a couple months is going to be full with production.” The deal follows the award in June of production contracts to both General Atomics and Anduril for the first three lots of the program’s first increment. The continuing resolution signed in September, however, freezes spending until at least December 11 and bars new program starts. General Atomics has reportedly begun building aircraft with its own funds in the meantime, having set a goal of six FQ-42s a month, and the fiscal year 2027 budget request is the first to include procurement money for the drones.

The FQ-42 was selected in April 2024 alongside Anduril’s design, first flew in August 2025, and General Atomics delivered a further aircraft to Creech Air Force Base in Nevada on September 18 for testing with the service’s evaluation units. It has already flown in formation with F-35 and F-15E Strike Eagle fighters. Its rival, the FQ-44 Fury, is to be produced at Anduril’s Arsenal-1 plant in Ohio, and was directed from an F-22 cockpit in an earlier test of crewed and uncrewed teaming. Both are intended to add mass to a fighter fleet that the Air Force has told Congress must reach 1,509 fighters by 2035. Mike Atwood, General Atomics’ vice president for advanced programs, stated at the Wichita opening that the drone is meant to supplement the F-35 rather than replace it.

Spirit was a Boeing division until it was spun off as an independent company in 2005, and Boeing began buying it back in 2024 after years of financial losses and quality control problems, completing the acquisition the following year. The Wichita firm specialises in composite and hybrid structures and has supported the B-21 Raider stealth bomber program. Boeing itself develops the MQ-28 Ghost Bat through its Australian subsidiary and builds the U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone. Atwood stated in 2024 that the General Atomics design reuses parts from the MQ-9 Reaper and relies on metal frames covered with composite skins, the type of structure in which Spirit has long specialised.