U.S. Navy conducts AI-powered autonomy demonstration for joint warfighter effort

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January 13, 2026

Patuxent River, Maryland. The U.S. Navy has conducted a second demonstration aimed at promoting artificial intelligence (AI) autonomy and multi-platform cooperation in future Cooperative Combat Aircraft (CCA), the Navy said in a statement.

The Dec. 11 event in Point Mugu, California, focused on maturing manned-unmanned teaming concepts aimed at extending the reach of carrier air wings, the statement said. Naval Air Systems Command Program Directorate Air Targets (PMA-208) and Strike Plan Execution System (PMA-281) led the effort in collaboration with industry partners Shield AI, Kratos and CTSI, the Navy said.

During the demonstration, two BQM-177A subsonic air targets flew autonomously using Shield AI’s Hivemind software and were connected to a Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) environment that included a virtual F/A-18 and two simulated enemy aircraft, according to the statement. The event also advanced the implementation of the Autonomous Government Reference Architecture (A-GRA) interface, which is intended to improve interoperability and accelerate the integration of mission autonomy across future unmanned platforms, the Navy said.

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