General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger unmanned combat aerial vehicle autonomously flown with Shield AI’s Hivemind software at Orange Flag exercise.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) and tech company Shield AI have revealed that an MQ-20 Avenger unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) recently flew autonomously during the Orange Flag 25-1 test exercise. As part of the U.S. Air Force Test Center’s all-domain test series, the General Atomics-owned MQ-20 tested a “reference autonomy stack,” described as a government-provided autonomy software, and passed the controls to Shield AI’s Hivemind autonomy software.
Orange Flag 25-1 took place at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Feb. 19-21, 2025, but the involvement of the MQ-20 and autonomy software has only been recently unveiled. The autonomous flight demonstration, according to the involved companies, is the first in a series of several planned autonomy flights for Shield AI and GA-ASI in 2025.
Hivemind is Shield AI’s flagship product, described as an AI pilot that enables teams of intelligent aircraft to operate and complete missions autonomously in high-threat environments, without the need for remote operators or GPS. This autonomy software platform enables unmanned systems to execute complex missions in disrupted, disconnected, intermittent, and low-bandwidth (DDIL) environments, ensuring adaptive, resilient, and coordinated operations across diverse platforms, says Shield AI.
“Hivemind flying the MQ-20 is a major step forward in demonstrating operational autonomy at scale and a proof point for the power of industry-led innovation,” said Christian Gutierrez, Shield AI’s VP of Hivemind Solutions. “We’re investing our own resources into this to accelerate our larger goal: flying autonomy on as many platforms as possible. When the government calls for autonomous solutions that enhance mission effectiveness, we’ll be ready.”
Autonomous flight – delivered at record speed. Through rapid development and integration, GA-ASI continues to prove speed to flight during a recent demonstration of @ShieldAItech AI-powered autonomy software aboard our MQ-20 Avenger®.
Learn more: https://t.co/d4F20WVnE8 pic.twitter.com/AALMWFqitJ
— General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc (GA-ASI) (@GenAtomics_ASI) March 4, 2025
Hivemind, which also included a pilot-vehicle interface (PVI), showcased the ability to fly unmanned vehicles autonomously, and also highlighted the possibility to rapidly swap between different autonomy systems mid-flight. During Orange Flag, the General Atomics drone has been able to fly with the government AI architecture and switch mid-flight over to the Shield AI software. GA-ASI says the test fllights proved that the aircraft can quickly go from company-written software, to government-provided, to other vendors’ software as needed.
“This demonstration marks a significant achievement in our ongoing efforts to operationalize autonomy for UCAVs,” said GA-ASI Vice President of Advanced Programs Michael Atwood. “Flying the government reference autonomy stack at Orange Flag 25-1 and utilizing the government-provided PVI underscores our commitment to delivering robust and adaptable autonomy solutions for the warfighter. We especially appreciate and salute the support we received from the 309th Software Engineering Group.”
Shield AI’s Hivemind has been designed from the start to be employed across multiple different platforms, beginning its testing on small quadcopters and advancing to more complex airframes until the recent flight on the MQ-20. The software has also been used on the F-16, says the company, possibly referring to the X-62 VISTA.
Beyond providing autonomous flight technology, Hivemind also enables cooperative teaming and swarming, and Shield AI aims to put the technology on CCA drones. Hivemind is platform agnostic, meaning that it can be scaled and implemented across an infinite number of different platforms, and not just those in its own stable.
The CCA Program
The U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program is aimed at the development of UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles) able to ‘collaborate’ with current and future manned combat aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, the upcoming B-21 Raider stealth bomber, and the future NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance), which is a ‘system of systems’ meant to help achieve air dominance.
The CCA drones are also expected to incorporate AI (Artificial Intelligence) and provide a cost-effective solution to attain air superiority, especially by using cutting-edge tech, like AI, to enhance the performance of the fighter fleet.
The expected role of the CCA planes in the air-to-air domain has been recently highlighted by the announcement of their official designation by the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) Chief of Staff, General David Allvin.
Allvin revealed that General Atomics’ drone has been named YFQ-42A, while Anduril’s aircraft has received the YFQ-44A designation, with the letter “F” indicating the expected “fighter” role.
The CCA program comes in different phases, or Increments, with the FQ-42A and/or FQ-44 being integrated into the USAF’s arsenal as Increment 1. It is currently unclear if the USAF will buy both of the types or choose just one for Increment 1.
The Air Force has also said that, while the first tranche of CCAs airframes is expected to be able to perform the role of air-to-air missile trucks in close cooperation with manned jets, air-to-ground strikes, electronic warfare, networking node, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities are potentially expected in future CCA drones.
The U.S. Air Force planned to procure 200 NGAD fighters along with 1,000 CCA, with between 100 and 150 of the latter being Increment 1 CCA airframes, the initial configuration. Each NGAD airframe is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, while the CCA drones are estimated to cost between $20.6 million and $27.5 million, “in the order of a quarter or a third” of the current unit cost of an F-35 and less than the price of a MQ-9 Reaper at roughly $32 million.
CCA UCAVs are not considered expendable or attritable, but rather “systems that you can accept losses of a fraction of them and not have a big operational impact.” It remains to be seen if, after the review of the NGAD program, the plans both the manned fighter and CCAs will remain the same.
The MQ-20 Avenger
The General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger (formerly known as Predator C) flew for the first time in April 2009 and represents a departure from the previous MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9A Reaper (or Predator B), as it is powered by a turbofan engine and includes stealth features, like an internal weapons bay and S-shaped exhaust to reduce infrared and radar signatures.
The Avenger can carry the Lynx synthetic aperture radar and a version of the F-35 Lightning II‘s electro-optical targeting system (EOTS), and is also able to carry and deploy unmanned systems from its weapons bay, as demonstrated when it released General Atomics’ new Advanced Air-Launched Effects (A2LE) small uncrewed aerial system (sUAS) from its internal weapons bay over Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, in 2024.
After the cancellation of both the Air Force’s MQ-X program to replace the MQ-9 Reaper and the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program, the Avenger has been used extensively in testing, with its extended-range version (MQ-20 Avenger ER) able to set an endurance record of 23.4 continuous hours in 2018, up from the 15 hours limit of the baseline version. Since its first flight in 2009, the MQ-20 Avenger has completed more than 13,000 flight hours as of 2022, with further testing in recent years.
Shield AI and General Atomics
Founded in 2015, Shield AI is a venture-backed American aerospace and defense technology company based in San Diego, California, with a portfolio of artificial intelligence-powered drones and technology for defense operations. Shield AI’s Nova sUAS (small Unmanned Aircraft System) was the first AI-powered drone to be deployed for defense purposes in US military history and its flagship autonomy software, Hivemind, powers aircraft, drones, and other platforms.
General Atomics, originally part of General Dynamics, was founded in 1955 in San Diego, California, by Austrian-born American nuclear physicist and Manhattan Project-veteran Frederic de Hoffmann, with the involvement of colleagues Edward Teller and Freeman Dyson. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the aviation division of General Atomics, has a long history in drone development, starting with the late 1980s Gnat, followed by the famous Rotax-powered and propeller driven MQ-1 Predator, developed by a team under Abraham Karem, former chief designer for the Israeli Air Force.
