General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has conducted an airborne Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) demonstration using an MQ-20 Avenger.
During the flight demonstration, the uncrewed aerial system (UAS) was paired with a surrogate tactical fighter using a ruggedised tactical control tablet.
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A modified King Air 200 was used to act as the surrogate aircraft and the tablet was integrated with software AI company Autonodyne’s RCU-1000 advanced human-machine interface (HMI).
The flight showcased autonomous collaboration to provide real-time situational awareness combined with complex behaviour tasking.
According to the company, the airborne node used a GA-ASI-modified King Air 200, enabling rapid integration and test of the command and control (C2) hardware.
GA-ASI advanced concepts senior director Mike Atwood said: “GA-ASI continues to innovate by integrating state-of-the-art technology, providing combatant commanders with tested solutions for persistent, affordable air sensing with challenging target sets.
“This flight builds on the previous long-wave IR passive autonomous testing and continues to validate that persistent Group 5 UAS aircraft can perform complex Air Moving Target Indication (AMTI).”
The demo took place for about two hours and allowed MUM-T to command airborne assets and autonomously execute behaviours and missions.
Autonodyne CEO Steve Jacobson said: “Autonodyne was thrilled to work with GA-ASI to leverage our previous work in MUM-T C2 and apply it to such an impressive air vehicle.
“Tactical control combined with powerful autonomy capabilities is critical to providing our warfighters the tools they need now.”
Last month, the company conducted a demonstration of its Avenger UAS equipped with a Lockheed Martin Legion Pod.
