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USAF publishes first image of Anduril YFQ‑44A Fury carrying inert AIM‑120 as captive‑carry weapons integration begins

The U.S. Air Force released the first official image of Anduril's YFQ‑44A Fury carrying an inert AIM‑120 AMRAAM, confirming the collaborative combat aircraft has begun captive‑carry weapons‑integration testing. The evaluations will validate airworthiness, safety and overall systems performance ahead of further developmental flights.

Discovered 2026-02-23T04:53:15.819170-08:00 | 2026-02-23T04:53:15.819170-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • The public image and captive‑carry tests show an industry YFQ‑44A has entered weapons‑integration trials, a key technical milestone for the USAF's Collaborative Combat Aircraft effort and its maturation timeline (see source:5e2dd41d-cfb4-4a8f-adb5-15f16c366393).

  • Validating inert AIM‑120 carriage and airworthiness is a prerequisite to live‑fire and operational employment, linking this work to recent live‑fire and manned–unmanned teaming demonstrations that de‑risk autonomous loyal‑wingman concepts (see source:7a2c0294-fcc2-42c9-9b8a-9cd9bd9f7fc0 and source:611d9c22-7ff4-47d0-a7d7-3a2ff897b1df).

Reported By

Defense Daily afmc.af.mil forcaaerea.com.br defence.m5dergi.com realcleardefense.com Air Data News
Sources Tracked
46
First Seen
2026-02-23T04:53:15.819170-08:00
Latest Update
2026-02-26T17:13:23.538702-08:00
Coverage
Defense

Sources

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