Making its first foray outside the USA was the Fury collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) from Anduril. It took pride of place on Anduril’s stand at the Avalon International Airshow 2025, held near Melbourne from 25-30 March.
The Fury, which has received the US military nomenclature of YFQ-44A, is one of two platforms selected last year for Increment 1 of the US Air Force’s CCA programme. The other is from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
Diem Salmon, Vice President of Growth & Strategy, Air Dominance and Strike at Anduril, told Asian Military Review that the company had been working on the design since 2019. The platform’s first flight is slated for the Northern Hemisphere summer this year.
Whilst the Fury shown at Avalon was just a model, Anduril is currently building multiple prototypes for the American CCA project.
Salmon said some of its characteristics include modularity, low cost, and disaggregated hardware and software. It utilises Anduril’s hardware-agnostic Lattice for Mission Autonomy software. Salmon pointed out that the Fury is simply a “truck” for the various payloads and sensors it will carry.
Asked whether it is capable of supersonic flight, Anduril would only say that it would have “fighter-like performance”. However, it is known to be powered by a popular commercial jet engine.
David Goodrich, Executive Chairman and CEO of Anduril Australia, said: “Our adversaries are making major investments in this area, and we need to move faster to develop autonomous systems for the defence of Australia and our allies. They provide a comprehensive view of battlefield dynamics and keep our warfighters out of unnecessary danger.”
Goodrich added, “As with all our products, Fury has been designed for simplicity and large-scale production … Hardware and material choices are optimised around cost, speed, simplicity and supply chain.”
It is interesting that Anduril chose to exhibit the Fury in Australia, especially because the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) is already investing heavily in the MQ-28A Ghost Bat developed by Boeing Defence Australia.
Eight MQ-28A Block 1 unmanned aircraft have been built, with another three Block 2 aircraft in production specifically for the RAAF. It is likely the improved model will feature an internal weapons bay.
One RAAF representative involved in the MQ-28A programme described its function: “You’ve got an unmanned aircraft out the front, it costs a tenth of a crewed aircraft, designed to go out there and find and fix targets in the battlespace, and hand that information back to other aircraft to prosecute.”
Referring to the Ghost Bat, Air Commodore Angus Porter, Director General of the RAAF’s Air Combat Capability, said, “This aircraft has real potential for Australian taxpayers, real potential for the Australian government, and be able to put some concrete options to government so they can make a decision at the end of the year.” This effort is known as Project Air 6015.
Goodrich said: “If Fury fills a need for the Australian Defence Force, we will be ready to support the need, subject to export approvals.” Anduril obviously believes it also has a chance of success in Air 6015.
by Gordon Arthur / Melbourne
