General Atomics Aeronautical Systems’ (GA-ASI’s) MQ-20 Avenger remotely piloted air system has conducted a successful ‘mission autonomy flight’ culminating with a simulated air-to-air engagement.
Equipped with what it describes as “the latest government-reference autonomy software”, the single-engined jet’s recent sortie highlighted “the ability of autonomy to leverage onboard sensors to make independent decisions and execute complex tasks”, GA-ASI says.
During manoeuvres also involving “an aggressor aircraft flown by an onboard human pilot”, the MQ-20 used an Anduril Industries-supplied infrared search and track sensor and its onboard autonomy system to “independently establish a track, calculate an intercept solution, and simulate the firing of a weapon at a live target… without human intervention”.
“The simulated shot, if real, would have destroyed the target,” GA-ASI says.
“This demonstration reinforces GA-ASI’s commitment to advancing human-machine teaming and highlights the growing sophistication of autonomous systems in using sensor data and onboard decision-making to execute complex mission profiles for the warfighter,” the company states.
Other highlights from the test included demonstrating the MQ-20’s ability to operate using pre-designated ‘keep-out zones’ and ‘keep-in zones’, it adds.
