F-22 Raptor Takes Control of a YFQ-44A Fury Drone Wingman in Flight Over California

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor has for the first time directed an Anduril YFQ-44A Fury collaborative combat aircraft while both were airborne, with the fighter’s pilot acting as an airborne quarterback for the unmanned jet during a test flown from Edwards Air Force Base in California. The Air Force disclosed the demonstration on October 16, while Anduril stated that the two aircraft took off during the week of October 5 and joined up before the Raptor pilot sent the Fury an updated mission plan over a tactical data link. The pilot issued high-level directives rather than flying the drone, with its autonomy software carrying out manoeuvres and simulated combat tasks over several hours. The flight places the Air Force considerably ahead of its rivals in turning crewed-uncrewed teaming into aircraft that fly together.

Air Force Chief of Staff General Kenneth Wilsbach marked the result, stating: “This flight shows the power of crewed-uncrewed teaming and the advantage it provides our warfighters.” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink highlighted it as evidence of what the service can achieve when it is aligned with industry on fielding capability quickly. Only a single Fury took part, although each fighter pilot is ultimately expected to direct several drones flying as a formation. The test follows one announced by General Atomics in November 2025, in which an F-22 pilot commanded the company’s MQ-20 Avenger from the cockpit, with the Avenger serving only as a surrogate for the two types the Air Force has since ordered, the Fury and the General Atomics FQ-42A Vengeance.

The Fury first flew on October 31, 2025, which Anduril stated came 556 days after development began, and has since fired an AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile. The Air Force moved both types into production on June 18 as the first increment of the program, with a target of no more than $20 million per air vehicle before sensors and weapons. Meink has stated that 500 of the drones are to be fielded by 2032 from a fleet expected to reach 1,000 or more, far above the earlier aim of more than 150 by the end of the decade. Anduril, which is separately pitching a cheaper interceptor to compete with the PAC-3, has become a leading beneficiary of the Pentagon’s growing investment in drone warfare.

Europe’s flagship effort has stalled, with the Franco-German FCAS program, which was meant to pair a sixth generation fighter with remote carrier drones, having collapsed before reaching the flight stage. China displayed several large unmanned combat aircraft widely assessed as designed to fly alongside crewed fighters at its Beijing military parade on September 3, 2025, though Beijing has released few details of how they are to be controlled. Russia’s S-70 Okhotnik flew in formation with a Su-57 fighter in September 2019, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence, with one prototype lost over eastern Ukraine in October 2024. The Fury and the FQ-42A are expected to make their debut in the large-scale Emerald Flag exercise in December, according to Lieutenant Colonel Lyndon Bartlett of the Experimental Operations Unit.