Vengeance And Fury: The Air Force’s Uncrewed Fighters Take Shape

NEWS ANALYSIS · 16 OCTOBER 2026
Based on official announcements published between April and September 2026

The US Air Force’s new uncrewed combat aircraft now have names: Vengeance and Fury. But the more revealing developments are happening away from the naming ceremony, where crews are learning how to refuel, arm and send these machines back into the air.

On 14 September, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced the FQ-42 Vengeance and FQ-44 Fury at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference. The service’s stated ambition is to acquire around 1,000 combat-ready, semi-autonomous aircraft, with 500 targeted by 2032. Those are plans, not aircraft already delivered to operational squadrons. The official announcement provides the names and intended scale.

The programme is known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA. Its central idea is to have uncrewed aircraft work alongside crewed platforms, increasing the number of aircraft available to a force without requiring a pilot in every cockpit. This year’s public test reports show that idea being subjected to increasingly practical questions.

Lead photograph: a YFQ-44A Fury during weapons-loading procedures at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, in July 2026. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Renee Blundon. The photograph shows a test aircraft, not an operational deployment.

Why The Ground Crew Story Matters

An aircraft that flies once is a demonstration. An aircraft that can be serviced, relaunched and supported by an operational unit is beginning to answer a much harder question.

In an April exercise at Edwards, the Experimental Operations Unit worked with the 412th Test Wing on deployment and sustainment procedures using the YFQ-44A. The Air Force described an effort to involve operators earlier in development, so that lessons from actual use can influence the programme before every procedure is fixed. Read the April report.

A subsequent exercise at Creech took the work into a different operating setting. The Air Force reported multiple sorties, integration with crewed aircraft in local airspace and scenarios intended to inform future requirements. Its photographs show people refuelling the aircraft and preparing inert AIM-120 missiles for loading. The July report and photo sequence are worth examining together.

That is an important corrective to the familiar image of an autonomous aircraft operating almost entirely on its own. Removing the cockpit does not remove the maintenance team, the fuel supply or the need for safe handling procedures. The practical test is how much capability the whole system delivers for the people and equipment needed to support it.

A Live Missile Test, With An Important Qualification

On 15 July, the Air Force reported that a YFQ-44A had fired an AIM-120 at a digital target in restricted test airspace over the Mojave Desert. The distinction matters: this was a live weapon firing, but the announcement did not describe the destruction of a physical enemy aircraft.

The test followed earlier work carrying inert weapons and checking the links between aircraft, weapon system and operator commands. That progression is more informative than a dramatic launch image on its own. It shows engineers moving from carrying a weapon safely towards validating a complete firing sequence. The official live-fire report explains the sequence.

It would be premature to turn that result into a claim that the aircraft has proved itself in combat. A controlled trial answers defined questions under defined conditions. Operational reliability, repeatable performance and integration across a larger force remain separate tests.

The Software Competition Behind The Aircraft

The most consequential contest may be less photogenic than either airframe. In June, the Air Force announced a six-company pool for mission-autonomy software: Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI.

The announcement described a six-year contracting framework intended to keep competition and software development moving. It also identified production options awarded to Anduril, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI, with selection of a primary provider for the first CCA increment planned by summer 2027. That schedule remains an announced intention. Read the contract announcement.

The significance is straightforward: buying an aircraft and deciding how it should behave are related but different problems. Hardware provides the platform. Software helps determine how that platform carries out its assigned work. A successful programme needs both to improve together, without assuming that progress in one automatically settles the other.

What To Watch Next

The names are memorable, but they are not the best measure of progress. More useful evidence will come from sustained flying, the practical demands on ground crews, and demonstrations of reliable cooperation with crewed aircraft.

Procurement announcements also need careful reading. A contract, a production target, an aircraft delivery and an operational capability are four different things. When a future fleet is discussed in hundreds of aircraft, the question is how many have reached each stage, and what they have actually demonstrated there.

For readers new to the terminology, our guide to military aircraft types and roles explains where uncrewed systems sit within the wider force.

Vengeance and Fury make a compelling headline. The real story is whether the Air Force can turn promising test aircraft into a dependable, supportable fleet. The photographs of people working around them may tell us as much about that challenge as the images of them flying.