MQ-20 Avenger Flies Autonomously with Hivemind AI at Orange Flag
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.