Anduril expands testing, production

Anduril is widening its defense push on three fronts at once: Air Force flight testing, autonomous shipbuilding and factory hiring in Ohio. (janes.com) (defensenews.com) (axios.com) The U.S. Air Force Experimental Operations Unit said it conducted experimental testing of Anduril’s YFQ-44A at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Defense News reported the exercise used maintainers with only a few days of training to turn the aircraft between sorties. (janes.com) (defensenews.com) The YFQ-44A is one of the Air Force’s first Collaborative Combat Aircraft, a class of pilotless “wingman” drones built to fly with crewed fighters or operate on their own. The service gave Anduril’s aircraft the YFQ-44A designation in March 2025, alongside General Atomics’ YFQ-42A. (anduril.com) (af.mil) The Air Force says the current phase is about operator-driven experimentation: getting pilots, maintainers and units to work with the aircraft early enough to shape tactics and support plans before the system is fielded. The service has said it wants an operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft capability by the end of the decade. (af.mil) (anduril.com) At sea, Anduril and HD Hyundai said their first autonomous surface vessel is already in production and is expected to enter the water in October 2026. Their partnership started in April 2024, when the companies said they would pair Anduril autonomy software with Hyundai’s shipbuilding capacity. (defensenews.com 1) (defensenews.com 2) That vessel project gives Anduril a second production line in autonomous military hardware beyond aircraft, while the Ohio buildout is meant to supply the labor for larger volumes. Axios reported April 21 that the company is working with Central Ohio high schools and colleges to create a hiring pipeline for its $1 billion Pickaway County facility. (defensenews.com) (axios.com) Axios previously reported that Arsenal-1, the factory near Rickenbacker, was about to start production in late March and that founder Palmer Luckey said the first production lines would go hot “in a matter of weeks.” The outlet described the project as one of the biggest job-creation efforts in Ohio history. (axios.com 1) (axios.com 2) The air side has also been moving fast by Pentagon standards. Anduril said the YFQ-44A reached first flight 556 days after clean-sheet design work began, and Janes reported in October 2025 that the aircraft had entered flight testing. (anduril.com) (janes.com) Taken together, the April updates show Anduril trying to prove the same thing in three places at once: its autonomous systems can be tested by military operators, built on industrial timelines and staffed at factory scale. (af.mil) (defensenews.com) (axios.com)