Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mission Autonomy
Autonomous mission software for collaborative combat aircraft that enables onboard decision-making, reduces pilot workload, and supports uncrewed and teamed combat aviation operations.
The Problem
“Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mission Autonomy for Onboard Perception, Decision-Making, and Control”
Organizations face these key challenges:
Highly dynamic and adversarial operating environment with incomplete information
Need for certifiable and bounded autonomy in safety-critical flight contexts
Contested GPS, datalink, and electronic warfare conditions degrade inputs
Sensor fusion across radar, EO/IR, EW, navigation, and tactical data is complex
Impact When Solved
The Shift
Human Does
- •Interpret battlespace updates and assess threats from incomplete sensor and datalink inputs
- •Manually adjust mission plans, routes, formations, and engagement priorities during execution
- •Direct sensor usage, contingency actions, and retasking for uncrewed or teamed aircraft
- •Maintain flight safety and mission continuity during communications loss or degraded navigation
Automation
- •Apply fixed avionics logic and scripted autonomy for predefined mission behaviors
- •Present onboard sensor tracks, navigation status, and alerting to pilots and operators
- •Execute preplanned routes, control laws, and rule-based responses within narrow scenarios
Human Does
- •Set mission objectives, rules of engagement, autonomy bounds, and approval thresholds
- •Approve or override high-consequence tactical actions and mission changes
- •Handle low-confidence, policy-conflict, or ambiguous situations escalated by the autonomy stack
AI Handles
- •Continuously fuse onboard and offboard data into a current battlespace picture and threat assessment
- •Generate and update tactical recommendations, route changes, sensor tasking, and role assignments
- •Autonomously execute bounded mission functions such as replanning, formation keeping, threat avoidance, and contingency responses
- •Coordinate collaborative aircraft actions and maintain mission execution during degraded or denied communications
Operating Intelligence
How it works
AI runs the operating engine in real time.
Humans govern policy and overrides.
Measured outcomes feed the optimization loop.
Who is in control at each step
Each column marks the operating owner for that step. AI-led actions sit above the divider, human decisions and feedback loops sit below it.
Step 1
Sense
Step 2
Optimize
Step 3
Coordinate
Step 4
Govern
Step 5
Execute
Step 6
Measure
AI lead
Autonomous execution
Human lead
Approval, override, feedback
AI senses, optimizes, and coordinates in real time. Humans set policy and override when needed. Measurements close the loop.
The Loop
6 steps
Sense
Take in live demand, capacity, and constraint signals.
Optimize
Continuously compute the best next allocation or action.
Coordinate
Push those actions into systems, channels, or teams.
Govern
Humans set policies, objectives, and overrides.
Authority gates · 1
The system is not allowed to take high-consequence tactical actions or mission changes without required human approval thresholds set by mission commanders, pilots, or remote operators.[S1]
Why this step is human
Policy decisions affect the entire operating envelope and require organizational authority to change.
Execute
Run the approved operating loop continuously.
Measure
Measured outcomes feed back into the optimization loop.
1 operating angles mapped
Operational Depth
Technologies
Technologies commonly used in Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mission Autonomy implementations:
Key Players
Companies actively working on Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mission Autonomy solutions: