U.S. Navy Tests Autonomy Integration With MQ-20 Drone

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.”

In practical terms, GA-ASI explained how TacACE was used to “reason over” a baseline mission plan and adapt it in real time as the scenario evolved. The company hailed the trial as a success, confirming that “the system proved it could understand its human boss’ instructions and carry them out within the team” of other crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

The jet-powered MQ-20 has featured in numerous U.S. armed forces demonstrations to date. In October 2025, it collaborated on a flight test with a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor fighter using L3Harris-provided datalinks: enabling the F-22 to command and control the drone in flight. In January, a company-funded demo also saw the platform make a live engagement with a human-piloted aggressor aircraft.

At the time, GA-ASI noted the MQ-20 has “served as a surrogate for collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs) for more than five years”. In February, the U.S. Air Force performed another F-22 teaming mission with the MQ-20. GA-ASI stated that this demonstration “highlighted the potential of CCAs to act as force multipliers for manned platforms, enabling collaboration between autonomous systems and human pilots.”