Thomas Novelly of Defense One reports that Anduril is set to begin production of its “drone wingman” aircraft at a new Ohio factory months ahead of schedule, with manufacturing expected to start within days. The facility will produce autonomous aircraft designed to fly alongside crewed US Air Force jets as part of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.

“We’re moving production of YFQ-44 into our Arsenal facility in Columbus, Ohio, in a matter of days, actually, we’re gonna start production there,” Levin said in a soon-to-be released Defense One video series. “We’ll be able to produce YFQ-44s at rate, but also many other Anduril products as well.” – Jason Levin, Senior Vice President of Engineering for Air Dominance & Strike at Anduril

The accelerated timeline highlights Anduril’s push for rapid development and scaling of military drone production, as the US moves to field AI-enabled, autonomous systems that can enhance combat capability and reduce risk to human pilots.

“We can go out to multiple vendors. That actually gives some price leverage as well, but also allows us to scale if the demand were to come,” Levin said. “So, if we need to build hundreds, multiple, of these aircraft, we can get that done by going out to a broader supply base, not just kind of bottlenecked by one or two vendors.”