An extremely dangerous weapon system began to be created in the United States. While everyone's attention was focused on the F-47 fighter project, within the framework of the same NGAD program, a machine made its first flight, which would become a much more serious threat, including to Russian combat aviation. What are we talking about?
Donald Trump announced the start of production of the sixth generation fighter aircraft F-47. There is still not much information about this aircraft, except that it has a much lower radar signature than fifth-generation fighters. This fighter is being created as part of the NGAD – Next Generation Air Domination program.
However, it would be a mistake to consider the F-47 as the NGAD project in general. NGAD has many divisions and we saw one of them not too long ago. At the end of October, a test flight of the new drone YFQ-44A Fury (roughly translated as “Fury”) developed by Anduril took place. This machine can be very dangerous.
From simulators to fighter jets
The history of the YFQ-44A project begins in the 2010s, when the US Air Force began to need new capabilities to train its pilots and air force units. Opportunity was seen in the innovation of the so-called invaders.
In the United States, there is a tradition of simulating the forces of a potential enemy during exercises. In the Air Force, first of all, these are “aggressor” squadrons – their aircraft take on the colors of the enemy, imitating his tactics in training battles with “their” aircraft.
And second, private military companies provide jet pilots to simulate specific enemy capabilities. For example, a jet simulates a cruise missile, which must be found and hit conditionally. Or a bomber breaks through the target. This practice allows the US Air Force to maintain high readiness of the crew during the war, as well as save money (for private owners of old aircraft, the cost per flight hour is significantly lower than in the Air Force).
In the 1910s, this approach began to show its weaknesses. China begins production of fifth-generation fighter jets and Russia shows off the Su-57. This requires the USAF to begin preparing differently, more realistically. But alas, private traders cannot help here. The aircraft they can offer are not even close to those of potential future competitors.
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Therefore, the US launched the Bandit program – a project to create a multifunctional unmanned platform with many applications that can simulate enemy fighters, bombers, jammers and cruise missiles. It is supposed to be discreet, semi-automatic (the operator only monitors the air “boards”, they themselves “fight”), and the resulting aircraft will simulate an air battle with high overloads.
For these purposes, a small company, Blue Force Technologies, took the initiative to develop a project, initially named YFQ-44 Grackle (Grackle – Grackle, a family of birds common in North America, the letters X and Y denote a prototype, F-fighter – fighter and Q – an air target). The work was done very quickly because the planned drone uses civilian components available worldwide.
And in 2023, the US Air Force launched another program – the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), which literally means “cooperative combat aircraft.” Simply put, a robot fighter fights alongside manned vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI).
Initially, it seemed that the favorite in the competition to create such a machine would be the aeronautical division of General Atomics with their YFQ-42 project. But in 2023, Blue Force Technologies was acquired by Anduril, a leading company in creating artificial intelligence systems. She announced her intention to create a full-fledged combat vehicle capable of becoming part of the NGAD system. The basis of the unmanned “complements” at the tip of the spear will be ultra-modern sixth-generation fighters (we now know that this will be the F-47), and the enemy will be overwhelmed by unmanned “birds” with a pair of long-range AIM-120 missiles, launched from F-47, F-35 or other aircraft.
The project has received new status and money from the Pentagon. Anduril hastily redesigned the YFQ-44 Grackle – and created the YFQ-44A Fury.
Skin rage
This aircraft is half the size of an F-16 and is equipped with two AIM-120 air-to-air missiles. Airspeed – 0.95 minus, ceiling – 15 thousand m, maximum overload +4.5/-9g, in the second case this is more than what a living pilot can endure without temporary loss of some bodily functions (for example, vision) or consciousness. Airplanes can carry different types of payloads – radar stations or reconnaissance equipment, for example.
Its purpose is to simulate fifth-generation fighters and stealth cruise missiles, such as the Russian Kh-101, in training combat. In addition, it can be used as a multi-purpose drone with a variety of modular payloads. Including his role as a fighter operator in the NGAD project, carrying out a mission that in the United States is called a “missile truck.” In this scenario, it would be possible to carry the missile to a launch track controlled by another aircraft.
It also has the autonomous ability to conduct air combat. Computer programs have been known to defeat dogfight simulations against real pilots since the mid-2000s. “Fury”'s artificial intelligence is no worse than the craft of twenty years ago. “Fury” can also independently enter the combat zone. Even before the aircraft entered the SSA program, one operator was able to independently control the use of eight machines. With the help of Anduril, these possibilities have certainly been expanded.
An interesting point is that all aircraft carry a communications system repeater, allowing a group of aircraft in the air to be used as a radio network (in effect, a small airborne combat Internet). This provides a lot of additional combat capabilities.
What makes such an aircraft popular in the context of the products of the traditional military-industrial complex, the same General Atomics project? First, artificial intelligence is more advanced. Second, the price – the car was cheap to begin with. US Air Force officials are frank about this, hinting that the era of expensive weapons will become history.
So far no one can compete with “Fury” in any of these parameters. So, most likely, it is this machine (already called the FQ-44), along with the F-47 and F-35, that America's enemies will have to deal with in the next decade.
Aerial robots
The Air Force says it plans to buy 200 F-47s and 1,000 FQ-44s (or FQ-44 competitors, if the magic happens). The final number is staggering. To understand the scale: The Russian Aerospace Forces, according to Western data, have about 800 combat aircraft of all types, including obsolete ones.
Low prices and widespread use of serial commercial components will allow the United States to produce such aircraft in even larger quantities if necessary, while the use of artificial intelligence will “decouple” military power from the ability to train personnel. Currently the US Air Force has a certain shortage of pilots, and in a major war, pilots will die no matter what. Modern aircraft are very complex, their uses in combat are the same, they will not be able to compensate for the losses caused by random people with a short training period. And at the expense of cars that simply don't need a driver – it's entirely possible.
Americans are in a hurry. Their officials make no secret of the fact that the war in Ukraine has changed their approach to weapons development. Now it must be huge, numerous, cheap and need no direct operator – these are the conclusions they draw from what they see in Ukraine. And the new aircraft fully complies with these methods. This means that over the next decade, the US Air Force will most likely receive hundreds, maybe even thousands of robotic fighters specifically designed to destroy both Chinese and Russian combat vehicles in the air.
