General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger Drone Completes First Live Autonomous Air-to-Air Intercept Test
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General Atomics says its MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aircraft has completed a live, autonomous aerial intercept against a crewed aggressor aircraft during a January flight from California. The test signals accelerating progress toward operational collaborative combat aircraft concepts being pursued by the U.S. Air Force.
On 18 January 2026, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) announced that its MQ-20 Avenger unmanned combat air vehicle had completed a new mission autonomy flight from San Diego featuring a live aerial intercept against a crewed aggressor aircraft. In this company-funded test, the jet-powered drone used a government reference autonomy stack to plan, execute and adapt its mission while managing air-to-air manoeuvres with minimal human input. The demonstration illustrates how quickly mission autonomy and sensor-driven decision-making are moving from simulation into realistic combat scenarios. The event, underscores the importance that industry and the U.S. Air Force now attach to collaborative autonomous combat aircraft.
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General Atomics has demonstrated a major leap in air combat autonomy after its MQ-20 Avenger drone successfully flew a live aerial intercept against a crewed aircraft with minimal human control (Picture Source: General Atomics)
During the latest flight, mission planning began on a dedicated human-machine interface before the approved profile was uploaded to the MQ-20, which then launched and switched from traditional flight control to the autonomy software in the air. Once the handover was confirmed, the system demonstrated that it could dynamically respect “keep-in” and “keep-out” zones defined on the ground, maintaining separation from restricted airspace while prosecuting its mission. At the heart of the trial was an engagement sequence in which the Avenger used a live Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor from Anduril to passively detect and range a crewed target aircraft. From that data, the onboard autonomy established a track, calculated an intercept geometry and executed a simulated weapons solution against the live target; according to GA-ASI, the virtual shot would have been lethal had real munitions been carried.
The MQ-20 Avenger itself is a large, jet-powered unmanned combat aerial vehicle designed as a higher-speed, lower-signature evolution of the MQ-9 Reaper family. The airframe is about 13 metres long with a wingspan of roughly 20 metres and is driven by a single Pratt & Whitney PW545B turbofan, allowing cruise speeds in the region of 740 km/h at altitudes above 15,000 metres. The aircraft incorporates an internal weapons bay to reduce radar and infrared signatures while still offering substantial payload capacity, complemented by external hardpoints for sensors or stores when low observability is less critical. With endurance in excess of 20 hours and the ability to carry well over a tonne of weapons and sensors, the Avenger is positioned as a Group 5 unmanned combat aircraft able to undertake long-range ISR and strike missions from secure bases at considerable stand-off distance.
Although only built in limited numbers, the Avenger has accumulated thousands of flight hours since its first flight in 2009 and has increasingly been used as a surrogate platform for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) effort. Over the last two years, GA-ASI has turned the MQ-20 into a flying laboratory for open-architecture mission autonomy. In early 2025, the Avenger took part in the Orange Flag 25-1 exercise, flying with a U.S. government-provided autonomy stack before handing control in flight to Shield AI’s Hivemind software. Later the same year, another GA-ASI-led trial saw the MQ-20 teaming its onboard autonomy with software from Shield AI in a mixed live-virtual environment, where a real aircraft and its digital twin flew coordinated combat air patrol patterns and demonstrated autonomous formation manoeuvres and station keeping. A separate company test in June 2025 already included simulated autonomous shoot-downs of live aircraft using the same class of government reference software that underpins the new January 2026 demonstration.
From a tactical standpoint, the latest intercept flight showcases several advantages that mission-autonomous UCAVs like the MQ-20 could bring to future air campaigns. By combining passive IRST tracking with onboard decision-making, the Avenger can close with an airborne target without emitting its own radar, complicating enemy detection and electronic warfare responses. The demonstrated ability to respect keep-in and keep-out geofences indicates that such aircraft can manoeuvre aggressively in complex airspace while still adhering to airspace control measures and safety constraints imposed by human commanders. Autonomy that can dynamically adjust heading, speed and altitude, respond to new tasking and route via standard instrument holds reduces the cognitive load on ground operators and allows a single crew to manage multiple UCAVs in parallel. In a combat setting, this could translate into more persistent combat air patrols, faster intercept timelines and an ability to saturate an area with attritable, uncrewed shooters while preserving crewed assets for tasks that genuinely require a pilot in the cockpit.
The flight further entrenches the MQ-20 Avenger as a key stepping-stone on the path to fully operational CCA fleets under the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation air dominance construct. Each successful autonomous intercept reduces technical and regulatory uncertainty around employing AI-enabled aircraft alongside crewed fighters in contested airspace. By basing its tests on open, government-defined reference architectures and demonstrating interoperability with third-party autonomy stacks, GA-ASI is helping to ensure that future CCA fleets can mix and match software from different suppliers without being locked into a single proprietary ecosystem.
For Washington and its allies, that approach supports industrial competition, accelerates capability insertion and makes it easier to share architectures and tactics across coalitions. At the same time, repeated emphasis on simulated weapons effects and human oversight reflects an awareness that political and legal debates over lethal autonomy are intensifying, and that operational concepts will need to balance military advantage with evolving rules of engagement and public scrutiny.
For armed forces preparing for air combat against technologically sophisticated adversaries, this latest MQ-20 Avenger test is a signal that mission autonomy for air-to-air operations is moving beyond isolated experiments toward repeatable capability. By pairing a survivable, long-endurance UCAV with modular, government-defined autonomy stacks and cutting-edge sensors, GA-ASI and its partners are methodically putting in place the building blocks of tomorrow’s human-machine air combat teams. The January 2026 intercept flight suggests that the next decisive advances may no longer be in airframe performance, but in the software that decides when, how and with what an aircraft engages its target.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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General Atomics says its MQ-20 Avenger unmanned aircraft has completed a live, autonomous aerial intercept against a crewed aggressor aircraft during a January flight from California. The test signals accelerating progress toward operational collaborative combat aircraft concepts being pursued by the U.S. Air Force.
On 18 January 2026, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) announced that its MQ-20 Avenger unmanned combat air vehicle had completed a new mission autonomy flight from San Diego featuring a live aerial intercept against a crewed aggressor aircraft. In this company-funded test, the jet-powered drone used a government reference autonomy stack to plan, execute and adapt its mission while managing air-to-air manoeuvres with minimal human input. The demonstration illustrates how quickly mission autonomy and sensor-driven decision-making are moving from simulation into realistic combat scenarios. The event, underscores the importance that industry and the U.S. Air Force now attach to collaborative autonomous combat aircraft.
General Atomics has demonstrated a major leap in air combat autonomy after its MQ-20 Avenger drone successfully flew a live aerial intercept against a crewed aircraft with minimal human control (Picture Source: General Atomics)
During the latest flight, mission planning began on a dedicated human-machine interface before the approved profile was uploaded to the MQ-20, which then launched and switched from traditional flight control to the autonomy software in the air. Once the handover was confirmed, the system demonstrated that it could dynamically respect “keep-in” and “keep-out” zones defined on the ground, maintaining separation from restricted airspace while prosecuting its mission. At the heart of the trial was an engagement sequence in which the Avenger used a live Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensor from Anduril to passively detect and range a crewed target aircraft. From that data, the onboard autonomy established a track, calculated an intercept geometry and executed a simulated weapons solution against the live target; according to GA-ASI, the virtual shot would have been lethal had real munitions been carried.
The MQ-20 Avenger itself is a large, jet-powered unmanned combat aerial vehicle designed as a higher-speed, lower-signature evolution of the MQ-9 Reaper family. The airframe is about 13 metres long with a wingspan of roughly 20 metres and is driven by a single Pratt & Whitney PW545B turbofan, allowing cruise speeds in the region of 740 km/h at altitudes above 15,000 metres. The aircraft incorporates an internal weapons bay to reduce radar and infrared signatures while still offering substantial payload capacity, complemented by external hardpoints for sensors or stores when low observability is less critical. With endurance in excess of 20 hours and the ability to carry well over a tonne of weapons and sensors, the Avenger is positioned as a Group 5 unmanned combat aircraft able to undertake long-range ISR and strike missions from secure bases at considerable stand-off distance.
Although only built in limited numbers, the Avenger has accumulated thousands of flight hours since its first flight in 2009 and has increasingly been used as a surrogate platform for the U.S. Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) effort. Over the last two years, GA-ASI has turned the MQ-20 into a flying laboratory for open-architecture mission autonomy. In early 2025, the Avenger took part in the Orange Flag 25-1 exercise, flying with a U.S. government-provided autonomy stack before handing control in flight to Shield AI’s Hivemind software. Later the same year, another GA-ASI-led trial saw the MQ-20 teaming its onboard autonomy with software from Shield AI in a mixed live-virtual environment, where a real aircraft and its digital twin flew coordinated combat air patrol patterns and demonstrated autonomous formation manoeuvres and station keeping. A separate company test in June 2025 already included simulated autonomous shoot-downs of live aircraft using the same class of government reference software that underpins the new January 2026 demonstration.
From a tactical standpoint, the latest intercept flight showcases several advantages that mission-autonomous UCAVs like the MQ-20 could bring to future air campaigns. By combining passive IRST tracking with onboard decision-making, the Avenger can close with an airborne target without emitting its own radar, complicating enemy detection and electronic warfare responses. The demonstrated ability to respect keep-in and keep-out geofences indicates that such aircraft can manoeuvre aggressively in complex airspace while still adhering to airspace control measures and safety constraints imposed by human commanders. Autonomy that can dynamically adjust heading, speed and altitude, respond to new tasking and route via standard instrument holds reduces the cognitive load on ground operators and allows a single crew to manage multiple UCAVs in parallel. In a combat setting, this could translate into more persistent combat air patrols, faster intercept timelines and an ability to saturate an area with attritable, uncrewed shooters while preserving crewed assets for tasks that genuinely require a pilot in the cockpit.
The flight further entrenches the MQ-20 Avenger as a key stepping-stone on the path to fully operational CCA fleets under the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation air dominance construct. Each successful autonomous intercept reduces technical and regulatory uncertainty around employing AI-enabled aircraft alongside crewed fighters in contested airspace. By basing its tests on open, government-defined reference architectures and demonstrating interoperability with third-party autonomy stacks, GA-ASI is helping to ensure that future CCA fleets can mix and match software from different suppliers without being locked into a single proprietary ecosystem.
For Washington and its allies, that approach supports industrial competition, accelerates capability insertion and makes it easier to share architectures and tactics across coalitions. At the same time, repeated emphasis on simulated weapons effects and human oversight reflects an awareness that political and legal debates over lethal autonomy are intensifying, and that operational concepts will need to balance military advantage with evolving rules of engagement and public scrutiny.
For armed forces preparing for air combat against technologically sophisticated adversaries, this latest MQ-20 Avenger test is a signal that mission autonomy for air-to-air operations is moving beyond isolated experiments toward repeatable capability. By pairing a survivable, long-endurance UCAV with modular, government-defined autonomy stacks and cutting-edge sensors, GA-ASI and its partners are methodically putting in place the building blocks of tomorrow’s human-machine air combat teams. The January 2026 intercept flight suggests that the next decisive advances may no longer be in airframe performance, but in the software that decides when, how and with what an aircraft engages its target.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
