General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) and the US Navy have tested mission planning software that enables uncrewed aircraft to interpret a commander’s orders, coordinate with other aircraft, and adapt as threats change.
The demonstration involved an MQ-20 Avenger flying from the company’s Gray Butte facility near Palmdale, California, and a mission operations center in Poway.
A live, virtual, and constructive framework linked the aircraft with simulated platforms and computer-generated participants in a combat scenario involving land, air, and maritime threats.
This allowed the team to assess coordination across the force without flying every aircraft represented in the exercise.
The team also evaluated how autonomous decisions affected mission timing and how human operators interacted with the software.
Turning Mission Orders Into Coordinated Actions
The team linked the US Navy’s existing mission planning system to GA-ASI’s Tactical Autonomy Ecosystem (TacACE), the software used aboard the MQ-20 Avenger to manage autonomous mission activity.
The navy’s planner was supplemented with structured data describing what the force needed to accomplish, the constraints it had to follow, and the threats it could encounter.
This information followed the government’s Autonomy Government Reference Architecture, providing mission context in a format the autonomy software could process.
Operators could define objectives, assign tasks, set priorities, and establish rules for how participants should coordinate.
TacACE then used that information to interpret the commander’s intent and determine how to carry out the mission within those limits.
According to GA-ASI, the software coordinated crewed and uncrewed participants and adjusted the plan in real-time as the simulated combat scenario changed.
Building on Earlier Autonomy Tests
The test brought together capabilities explored in earlier MQ-20 demonstrations, focusing on how autonomy could interpret US Navy mission plans and coordinate multiple participants.
In April, the service partnered with GA-ASI on its Collaborative Autonomy Mission Planning and Debrief project to develop planning and review workflows for uncrewed operations.
Planned tests included air patrol, threat neutralization, and connectivity with platforms such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Earlier in the year, GA-ASI said the MQ-20 used onboard sensors to track a piloted aircraft, calculate an intercept, and autonomously take a simulated shot.
The demonstration also tested its ability to stay within designated operating zones and avoid restricted airspace.