General Atomics claims fully autonomous AI-piloted flight with Avenger MQ-20A
Avenger MQ-20A, formerly known as Predator C. (Photo: USN)
A company-owned Avenger MQ-20A UAS was used on 12 September by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to fly a military aircraft with an AI pilot and operationally relevant mission systems software.
The company revealed on 19 September that the ‘completely autonomous flight’ with the AI pilot lasted for about 30 minutes as part of a ‘cooperating live, virtual, and constructive UAS swarm’.
General Atomics employed its Reinforcement Learning (RL) architecture to develop and validate an RL agent in an operationally relevant environment — specifically, enabling ‘chase and avoid’ behaviour in which real-time updates were made to the flight path in order to avoid adversaries using live fused tracks.
The live tracks were provided to the system using a TacIRST embeddable infrared search and track sensor system supplied by Lockheed Martin.
General Dynamics Mission Systems supplied the mission computer for the flight, which is part of a series by General Atomics to demonstrate AI and machine learning concepts for advanced UAS.
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
More from Air Warfare
-
UK to receive 27 additional F-35 aircraft by end of decade
The number of aircraft was stated by UK Defence Secretary John Healey during a Defence Committee hearing. It follows on from the UK’s decision to purchase F-35A aircraft to boost its nuclear deterrence, although hurdles and questions about the order still remain.
-
Paraguayan Air Force receives four A-29 Super Tucano aircraft
Six Super Tucano aircraft were ordered in July 2024, with Paraguay the fifth South American country to add the aircraft to modernise its fleet.
-
US budget boosts Boeing’s F-15EX with $3.1 billion investment to increase fleet to 129
The F-15EX Eagle II had already been singled out for further funding in January 2025, when it was chosen to replace the A-10 aircraft for the US National Guard.
-
Spain earmarks $1.6 billion for Hurjet trainer aircraft acquisition
Spain’s Defence Minister told the Senate Defense Commission on 27 June of the decision to acquire Turkish Aerospace Industries’ (TAI) trainers as the country seeks to replace its Northrop F-5M aircraft.