Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
U.S. Navy Tests Autonomy Integration With MQ-20 Drone
Adaptive autonomy elements can modify a mission plan in real-time
drone in flight above desert
GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger uncrewed combat aerial vehicle is powered by a Pratt & Whitney PW545B turbofan © General Atomics

The U.S. Navy has conducted a collaborative teaming demonstration of the MQ-20 Avenger drone during its annual Gray Flag exercise. The flights, reported by manufacturer General Atomics’ Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) this week, were conducted in California on September 10 and were intended to show how a human commander’s intentions can translate into actions undertaken by autonomous elements.

During the exercise, which GA-ASI termed a “demonstration of collaborative autonomous mission planning,” the MQ-20 employed General Atomics’ Tactical Autonomy Ecosystem (TacACE) software to enable co-ordination and decision-making. GA-ASI said this software “provided an environment for integrated human-machine mission planning, command and control, autonomy configuration, simulation, and post-mission analysis.”

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