General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI), the F-35 Joint Program Office, 309th Software Engineering Group, 461st Flight Test Squadron, 370th Flight Test Squadron, Lockheed Martin and Autonodyne recently collaborated on a flight test that demonstrated advanced manned-unmanned teaming, GA-ASI announced on 27 May 2026.

The test paired a US Air Force (USAF) F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter with a GA-ASI MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) acting as a collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) surrogate.

The MQ-20 was equipped with GA-ASI’s Tactical Autonomy Ecosystem (TacACE) software, which is based on the latest government reference autonomy software architecture. The demonstration “further proved the CCA surrogate and F-35’s ability to use a tactical proliferated low Earth orbit datalink to accomplish seamless co-ordination”, GA-ASI stated.

The demonstration used beyond-line-of-sight communications between an airborne MQ-20 and an F-35 on the ground, enabling the F-35 pilot to send tactical autonomy commands via a tablet in the cockpit. These commands were relayed to the MQ-20’s TacACE, leveraging skills based on the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA), enabling rapid integration.

You can read the press release here.