Anduril and General Atomics Are Building America's Robot Fighters on Their Own Dime

The lines are running and the money is not

Both Collaborative Combat Aircraft primes put numbers on their factories in the same week. General Atomics says it can build six FQ-42A Vengeance jets a month↗; Anduril says Arsenal-1 in Ohio, cutting Fury metal since March, is sized for 150 a year ¹.

The fiscal 2027 request carries $996.5 million for production aircraft plus $150 million in advance procurement for 2028, but Congress passed a continuing resolution instead, holding funding flat through 11 December 2026 with no new money for CCA production ¹. For the vendors and their investors the arithmetic is blunt: capital converts to revenue only if appropriators act by that date.

Readiness is arriving ahead of appropriations

The Air Force awarded both firms production contracts in June and has since named the jets Vengeance and Fury ². Secretary Troy Meink set a floor of at least 500 CCAs in service by 2032 on 14 September ¹. A Fury reached the Experimental Operations Unit at Creech in August, a Vengeance followed on 18 September, and the service confirmed both on 24 September ¹².

In July one operator launched and recovered a Fury after a few hours of training, then flew its mission autonomy with no Anduril personnel in the loop ¹. This week the service began independent Fury operations↗: airmen flying jets Congress has not yet paid for, readiness arriving ahead of appropriations ¹³.

The float is corporate cash

The Air Force's newest fighter program is being financed, for now, by the companies building it. General Atomics says it is self-funding Vengeance output to prevent delivery delays; Anduril has bought long-lead items itself and says work under the production contract cannot start until appropriators act↗ ¹⁴. "Even a company like ours can only do so much without procurement dollars," said Erin Simpson, Anduril's vice president for strategy execution ⁴.

The plant anchoring Anduril's side of that float cost $900 million and employed 133 people in July↗, with 250 planned by year end ⁵. Some Vengeances rolling off General Atomics' line will stay company property, its spokesman says ¹.

The prize on the other side: a reported average ask near $20 million a copy↗, 150 jets in Increment 1, and a 500-jet fleet near $10 billion, roughly $5 billion per prime if the split lands even ⁶. That figure is analyst arithmetic on an assumed split, not a contract ⁶.

December has two doors

Pass appropriations by 11 December and two standing lines convert to funded rate. Extend the stopgap and the float stretches into 2027. Simpson raised one escape hatch, an anomaly in a future continuing resolution that would release CCA production money ⁴.

Anduril's hedge is abroad

Anduril holds offsets General Atomics has not named. Barracuda just became the first weapon in mass production to clear independent Air Force open-architecture verification↗, with deliveries from early 2027 at a planned several thousand a year ⁷. Latvia is moving to order the missile for long-range strike ⁸, and Poland's PGZ has signed on to build thousands of Barracuda-500Ms at Bydgoszcz ⁹.

Watch the company-owned jets

The tell is whether Arsenal-1 keeps building Fury airframes for Anduril's own account, as General Atomics already does with Vengeance, through whatever December brings ¹. A line still moving on 12 December with no appropriation in sight means the float is no longer a bridge; it is the business model.