Anduril’s Fury autonomous fighter jet completes first test flight

A few days ago, California-based defense tech firm Anduril concluded the first test flights of its semi-autonomous Fury fighter jet without a pilot in the cockpit. Oh wait, there’s actually no cockpit in there at all.

The company’s major milestone, which it’s achieved in just 556 days since it began work designing the aircraft, will see it join the race to become the leader in uncrewed aviation. Another defense contractor called General Atomics is also in the running with its experimental XQ-67A platform, and China is believed to be making great strides with pilotless planes too.

Back in September 2023, the company had acquired a small North Carolina-based firm called Blue Force Technologies which had initially developed the Fury aircraft. Anduril itself, meanwhile, has built a software platform for command and control of autonomous planes. With these coming together, the YFQ-44A test jet began its test flight program on October 31.

Anduril noted last April that it was selected by the US Air Force to design and build Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which will augment the efforts of crewed fighter jets in missions like reconnaissance, surveillance, and air-to-air and air-to-ground combat without a human on board.

Rather than being piloted remotely by someone with flight controls, it takes off, flies, and lands autonomously while only being monitored by a person on the ground. That person can issue commands to engage and call off missions, and is required to manually authorize lethal actions like firing weapons or dropping munitions.

Fury also has a fully integrated weapon system on board that’s designed to capture data about what’s going around it in combat scenarios, and respond accordingly. “It identifies targets and commands effects, enhancing the lethality, survivability, and effectiveness of the combined team,” said Dr. Jason Levin, senior vice president of engineering at the firm.

Once the aircraft proves its mettle in the skies, Anduril’s next goal will be to begin mass producing it at the company’s upcoming 5-million-sq-ft production facility in Columbus, Ohio, within the first half of 2026. To that end, Fury is designed to be mass produced quickly and affordably – for a lot less money than you’d spend on a conventional fighter jet. Indeed, Anduril told CBS in a recent 60 Minutes segment that Fury uses a commercial business jet engine and easily available landing gear components, instead of bespoke equipment and military aircraft powertrains.

Anduril Industries

Of all the efforts coming together to get this jet into the air, the software and AI capabilities that enable Fury to respond to changing conditions in the sky while in the thick of wartime scenarios is likely the most challenging and transformative. You can see what some of that is like in Anduril’s promo video below:

They will undoubtedly change the way nations approach conflict, and the technology raises questions about autonomy and accountability in warfare – perhaps similar to what we’ve seen with remotely operated drones. It might seem like just a more sophisticated flight system, but it’ll give policymakers and military strategists a whole lot of new issues to grapple with in the next few years.

Source: Anduril