Autonomous Aircraft Executes Mission Plan in Collaborative Tool Test, Navy Says

An MQ-20 Avenger surrogate aircraft demonstrates Collaborative Autonomy Mission Planning (CAMP) Sept. 10, 2026, during Gray Flag 2026, showing how human operator plans are seamlessly translated for autonomous flight execution. US Navy photo The U.S Navy recently demonstrated that an autonomous aircraft can receive a mission plan and execute that mission as part of the Collaborative Autonomy Mission Planning (CAMP) tool, the service announced Tuesday.

CAMP is meant to integrate autonomous aircraft with mission planners, helping the two communicate in a common way. Mission planners develop the overall mission – including what each aircraft should do, when it should do it, and what authorities and limitations apply in the Collaborative Mission Planning Continuum (CMPC) – and then CAMP translates that information into a format an autonomous aircraft can use to carry out its assigned role as part of a larger battle plan, reads the Navy news release.

“CAMP is about making autonomy more usable by integrating into mission environments with both manned and unmanned platforms,” said Capt. Todd “Toby” Keith, PMX-281 program manager. “This demonstration showed how we can connect the way operators plan missions today in the CMPC with the way autonomous aircraft will execute those missions. That can reduce the burden on our operators, improve interoperability and help bring collaborative autonomy closer to operational use.”

The demonstration was carried out by a team from Naval Air Systems Command’s Strike Planning & Execution Systems (PMX-281) on Sept. 10 during the Gray Flag 2026 exercise held at the Point Mugu Sea Range, Calif. PMA-281 is responsible for the acquisition and life cycle management of mission planning, control systems and execution tools that are developed and integrated in partnership with other NAVAIR program offices, other military services and foreign nation partners, according to the NAVAIR’s webpage.

During the exercise, an MQ-20 Avenger from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems acted as a surrogate aircraft, receiving the mission plan and executing the mission. The results are being reviewed. The MQ-20 Avenger, which General Atomics officially calls the Predator C Avenger, is a jet-power derivative of the company’s Predator drone.

Predator C Avenger. General Atomics photo PMX-281, managed by the Program Acquisition Executive for Munitions, is supporting the Navy’s development of mission-planning capabilities that define aircraft roles, tasks, timing, authorities and constraints. CAMP builds on that work by connecting those plans directly to autonomy-enabled aircraft.

The connection provided through CAMP will make it easier for the Navy to integrate different autonomous aircraft and systems into future operations. The tool also allows mission planners to focus on the operational objective rather than having to translate plans into different platform-specific formats. CAMP is also supporting the Navy’s broader goal of developing interoperable autonomy systems as autonomous platforms operating together require a common way to exchange mission information. Through CAMP, a connection is provided between mission-planning systems and the specific information an individual aircraft needs to perform its role, stated the release.

Additionally, CAMP builds on the Navy’s Experimental Platform for Intelligent Combat (EPIC) effort, which has demonstrated autonomous vehicle control, mission behaviors and coordinated operations using surrogate aircraft in live, virtual and constructive environments.

General Atomics was selected by NAVAIR’s PMA-281 for the Collaborative Autonomy Mission Planning and Debrief (CAMP) project, according to an April 20 announcement.

The CAMP project will demonstrate the potential for extending PMA-281’s Mission Planning Software framework to support behavioral tasking, Rules of Engagement (ROE) configuration, AI decision thresholds, and comprehensive mission debrief capabilities, General Atomics said.

According to General Atomics, the CAMP project will demonstrate key capabilities on the MQ-20 Avenger platform equipped with Government Reference Implementation autonomy, Electronic Warfare and Infrared Search and Track payloads and features Link 16, Tactical Targeting Network Technology and Starlink satellite communications.

Demonstrations are meant to highlight how mission planning software enables behavioral tasking, Electronic Warfare (EW) and Infrared Search and Track employment, combat air patrol, and target engagement, with execution and coordination demonstrated via Link 16-enabled platforms including F/A-18 Super Hornets, General Atomics said.

Additionally, the Navy announced on Sept. 14 that it had awarded a $562 million Fixed Price Incentive contract to Boeing for the MQ-25A Stingray Lot 1 Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP). The award provides the funds for three LRIP Lot 1 MQ-25As and additional funding for the advanced acquisition of long lead components to support three LRIP Lot 2 MQ-25As. Initial deliveries from Lot 1 are expected to begin in 2029.

A MQ-25 Stingray sits parked in Hangar 1 on Scott Air Force Base, Ill., May 12, 2023. The MQ-25 Stingray will be the world’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft and provide aerial refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities that enhance capability and versatility for the Carrier Air Wing (CVW) and Carrier Strike Group (CSG). US Air Force photo The MQ-25A program of record includes 76 air vehicles, four Engineering Development and Manufacturing and five System Demonstration Test Articles. Currently, seven test aircraft are in production at Boeing’s St. Louis, Ill., location and the dedicated MQ-25 production facility in Mascoutah, Illinois.

The Navy has been conducting various trials using Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), notably in December 2025 and January. General Atomics, Boeing, Anduril and Northrop Grumman are on contract for the conceptual design of the Navy’s CCA with Lockheed Martin under contract to build the common control system, USNI News previously reported.

NAVAIR was seeking industry feedback and capability statements for the Navy Collaborative Combat Aircraft Increment 1 Prototype Project – specifically seeking information on an affordable, highly capable, risk tolerant, carrier-capable, weaponized, extended range, autonomous unmanned air vehicle that can deploy from and recover to Gerald R. Ford-class and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers – according to an Aug. 31 RFI. The RFI closed on Sept. 18.

“This RFI solicits industry expertise for the development and evaluation of two fully functional, unmanned autonomous prototype air vehicle(s) achieving shorebased carrier certification requirements within three (3) years or less from agreement award. The prototypes must be designed to meet full carrier qualification requirements and employment in HCE (Highly Contested Environments) aboard CVNs, while also possessing the flexibility to operate from austere locations with minimal infrastructure,” reads the RFI.

The first Navy production MQ-25A Stingray flight April 25, 2026, at Boeing’s facility at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill. Boeing photo The Navy’s affordability goal for the CCA was at $30 million per unit. The CCA solution must feature reconfigurable weapon payload carriage to execute strike missions and both internal and external weapon carriage designs will be considered, with capacity and survivability being driving factors in design evaluation. The CCA must have the ability to carry four weapons up to 2,500 pounds each externally throughout the target flight envelope and carrier certification flights.

Companies were required to provide the maximum combat radius including weapons loadout, 30 minutes on-station and reserve fuel for safe recovery that their proposed CCA can perform and that the CCA must be able to organically reposition to a carrier in contested environments, operate from expeditionary locations without significant infrastructure additions to a carrier in the contested environment or join a carrier-launched mission. The CCA must also be able to operate at the cruise speed of a carrier and must not take up space on a carrier exceeding existing 4th generation fighter aircraft.

The first flight is targeted at 24 months after contract award.