General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) completed a milestone autonomy demonstration on June 11, showcasing a first-ever autonomous, multi-aircraft exercise that successfully included a simulated autonomous shoot-down.
The test involved GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger® working with both live and virtual aircraft using the latest government reference autonomy software, along with additional software from Shield AI.
As software-driven mission capabilities advance rapidly, the ability to integrate diverse software across platforms is becoming essential. GA-ASI’s testing confirmed that following government reference architectures allows seamless interoperability between various software and hardware configurations.
During the exercise, the MQ-20 autonomously managed multi-aircraft coordination, dynamic in-flight formation adjustments, area patrols, autonomous decision-making, manned-unmanned teaming, and the autonomous interception of two live aircraft with a simulated missile strike.
One of the key highlights was a mid-flight software transition from the government’s autonomy suite to Shield AI’s Hivemind system, executed without impacting flight stability or the mission timeline. This seamless switch demonstrated the practical advantages of using a shared architecture that supports software swaps from multiple vendors in real time.
The test underscored the benefits of a future autonomy ecosystem where software can be integrated like apps, quickly and from a broad supplier base. GA-ASI’s work supports faster innovation cycles, flexible autonomy development, and rapid fielding of new mission capabilities without locking users into single-vendor solutions. The June 11 event confirmed that government-backed open architectures can dramatically streamline system integration and scalability for autonomous platforms.
