With so many blinking warning signs, why is the military pressing ahead on such a short timeline? The Air Force sees autonomous drones as a low-cost way to address an immediate problem: its dwindling number of fighter jets. The service now has about 5,000 aircraft — fewer than at any point in its 79-year history — many of which aren’t battle-ready. As Beijing continues to add new antiaircraft missile batteries, fighter jets and its own autonomous drones, the United States understands the need to quickly replace its vulnerable Cold War-era warplanes. If it can build a large fleet of robotic drones at a fraction of the cost of current fighter jets, it can maintain its formidable presence across the globe for decades to come, the thinking goes.

The nearly $1 billion that the Air Force wants for the C.C.A. program next fiscal year is a pittance compared to the cost of high-end fighter jets, which war planners see as continuing to play a prominent role in retaining military dominance. The Air Force wants to integrate at least 1,000 autonomous drones, at an estimated cost of around $25 to $30 million apiece, into its operations, with the first handful produced next year.

One of the firms making drones for the program, General Atomics, based in Poway, Calif., has been selling drones to the U.S. military for decades. On a sweltering morning in July, its YFQ-42A Dark Merlin drone sat under a sand-colored shelter blotting out the Southern California sun. Beads of sweat dotted the brows of the General Atomics and Air Force maintenance crews at the remote airfield near Palmdale, Calif., as the temperature inched toward 100 degrees.

It’s not often you see military personnel working shoulder to shoulder with defense contractors on prototypes, but it’s one of the exceptions the Air Force is making on this project as it rushes to get the drones in the air. The quicker humans trust the machines, the quicker they can be assimilated into the battlefield. “The Air Force needs to have 100 percent assurance in the aircraft if they’re going to allow pilots’ lives to depend on it,” said Mike Atwood, head of advanced programs in General Atomics’ aeronautical unit.

Just a half-hour drive away across an expanse of high desert, at the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, lies the Victorville airport. Here, technicians were tinkering with the other drone in the program, the YFQ-44A Fury, built by Anduril. The software-centric upstart based in Costa Mesa, Calif., is eager to add the combat drone program to its growing list of lucrative Pentagon contracts. In May 2025, it partnered with Meta to build virtual reality devices for the U.S. Army. Two months later, it won a $100 million contract to build the Army’s command-and-control software. But it seeks a larger production contract from the military.