During a test that marked the first occasion of its kind, an F-22 Raptor pilot relayed directional commands to a YFQ-44A Fury Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone operating alongside the manned jet. The F-22 fleet is expected to take on a directing role for the uncrewed aircraft once they reach operational status, a prospect that carries potential consequences for how the Air Force structures its CCA program going forward.

A joint announcement from the Air Force and Anduril — the prime contractor behind Fury — described what was called an "airborne tactical-control demonstration," though the event itself had taken place earlier that same month. According to a company representative at Anduril, neither the F-22 nor the pre-production YFQ-44A had previously taken part in this type of operation.

Trials pairing Fury with F-35 jets in coordinated flight had been disclosed by the company a month earlier, though it noted at the time that real-time airborne commands had not yet passed from the fighter jets to the drone. That same year saw a Fury drone carry out the first-ever deployment of an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile from one of its weapons stations.

Purchase commitments covering both the FQ-44A and General Atomics' FQ-42A Vengeance unmanned platforms have been placed under Increment 1, the opening phase of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft programme. Plans to bring additional CCAs on board through a follow-on Increment 2 procurement remain active within the programme.

A fleet target of at least 500 Collaborative Combat Aircraft units by 2032 has been set. An Air Force statement described a test in which an F-22 pilot, operating airborne, relayed high-level tactical instructions to a single YFQ-44A — with the aircraft's onboard autonomy software then interpreting and carrying out those instructions in real time, performing dynamic flight maneuvers and simulated combat tasks — and noted that the exercise drew personnel from the 412th Test Wing, 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron, 309th Software Engineering Group, Experimental Operations Unit, F-22 System Program Office, and the CCA Software Autonomy and Teaming Branch.

Based at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the Experimental Operations Unit (EOU) has been driving Air Force readiness for Collaborative Combat Aircraft integration. A separate Anduril statement outlined how a Fury drone and an F-22 took off together from Edwards AFB, rendezvoused airborne, and then received an updated mission plan transmitted from the Raptor pilot to the Fury via a tactical data link, with the pilot directing the autonomous aircraft through operationally relevant maneuvers from the crewed cockpit — though neither the Air Force nor Anduril provided details on how the F-22 had been configured for that evaluation.

Budget filings from the Air Force have spelled out a requirement to fit the Raptor with tablets, connecting cables, and related equipment toward that end. One Raptor is designed to handle several CCA drones at the same time.

Collaboration between Lockheed Martin, as prime contractor on the Raptor, and Air Force teams has centred on building out the control architectures and user interfaces needed for both that fighter and the F-35. Touchscreen tablet-style interfaces have dominated published research into cockpit controls for drone operation, with that body of work generally treated as a foundation rather than a final destination. Concerns about heavier workloads — particularly for pilots operating single-seat fighter aircraft — have been put forward by various parties.

A comparable test flight pairing an MQ-20 Avenger drone with a Raptor was disclosed by General Atomics in November 2025. Testing of the MQ-20 as a stand-in for a collaborative combat aircraft has been carried out by General Atomics across a range of evaluation scenarios. Imagery released by General Atomics captured a Vengeance drone operating alongside Air Force fighters in formation, with the aircraft maintaining independent control rather than receiving direct input from the accompanying jets.

Two vessels named Fury and Vengeance are scheduled to take part in a large-scale exercise before the calendar year draws to a close. Incorporating the CCAs into the next round of Exercise Emerald Flag would allow the Air Force to evaluate them in a setting closer to actual operational conditions, flying alongside piloted aircraft — something a senior program official noted had not yet taken place at the scale of a large-force employment exercise. Emerald Flag is listed among the frontrunners heading into the race.

Speaking at the Air and Space Forces Association's Air, Space and Cyber Conference in September 2026, Bartlett — who holds the Director of Operations post within the EOU — put forward the view that the unit is approaching its first real-world test of how Air Force elements and industry partners can function together under operational conditions, while acknowledging that a number of open questions, ones that sit beyond the boundaries of day-to-day tactical work, have yet to be resolved.

Operating procedures and governing policies for CCAs are to be built from the ground up, given that how these vehicles are deployed, launched, recovered, and supported differs fundamentally from the methods used for crewed aircraft. The same logic extends to Naval and Marine Corps CCA development, both of which are being advanced in tandem with the Air Force's parallel work on the programme.

In a written statement, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink noted that the outcome reflected what becomes possible when government and industry move toward a shared goal — in this case, putting new capability into the hands of those in the field at a pace not previously seen. Senior Air Force leaders and industry representatives described the Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort as an accelerated push to move autonomous technology from testing into active use, with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach noting that the crewed-uncrewed pairing demonstrated during the flight offered operational benefits for commanders in the field, while Mark Shushnar, Anduril's Vice President of Autonomous Airpower, stated that the program had advanced further than comparable efforts elsewhere and that delivering fielded aircraft would require the company and the Air Force to jointly validate the technology, establish operating procedures, and develop confidence between personnel and the semi-autonomous aircraft flying alongside them.