U.S. Army Aviation Doubles Down On Autonomy Vision

A future U.S. Army rotorcraft fleet could include an autonomous version of the Bell MV-75 tiltrotor, optionally piloted versions of other U.S. Army rotorcraft, a large uncrewed aircraft system that does not need runways and thousands of small combat drones purchased by soldiers online as if they were buying toys on Amazon.

Due to a new embrace of all things autonomous, each of those changes are coming or are in consideration for the Army’s aviation branch. Heeding lessons from battlefields in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere, Army leaders are doubling down on a new strategy to apply autonomy at all levels of the aviation branch and to connect those future platforms with similarly autonomous systems on the ground and at sea.

• Autonomy inserted into MV-75 modernization plan 
• Industry summit scheduled for Group 4 UAS 
• Online drone marketplace opens in March

This new vision—revealed Feb. 11 during the Expanded Maneuver - Air Summit at Fort Rucker, Alabama—partly reflects a strategic reconsideration by the aviation branch since the 2024 cancellation of the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program. Lacking a crewed platform to seek out enemy targets and threats, the Army is expecting autonomous technologies to fill the capability gaps created by the demise of FARA.

As the autonomous aircraft overhaul moves into high gear, Army leaders are cognizant that they must do things differently.

The acquisition strategy will be informed by the Army’s decades-long struggles with incorporating autonomous systems across the service. In the latest example, the Army’s Robotic Combat Vehicle (RCV) program is now proceeding into a third round of bidding as officials seek to overcome concerns about prices and capability limitations that foiled the first two rounds.

“We tend to presuppose what will be useful out there in units when it comes to materiel solutions,” Brig. Gen. Anthony Gibbs said. “And what we found is the things that we’ve developed . . . have not been well-received out there in units. Or we’ve developed things that are bespoke designs that are very expensive.”

The Army’s troubled track record is based on a traditional approach to military technology development. The traditional method starts at the headquarters level, where the staff identifies a capability gap and creates a requirement. The Army’s research and development enterprise then experiments with potential solutions in a laboratory-like environment. The results inform a lengthy and often complicated acquisition process. But the consequent final product or system often falls short of expectations or costs too much to buy in sufficient volume.

Gibbs, who serves as the Army’s autonomy capability portfolio executive, a role previously called the program executive officer, wants to reverse the process by taking the experimentation phase out of the laboratory environment and into the field. The initial solution may still fall short of the full requirement, but the Army will keep iterating. And subsequent changes will be based on feedback from operational experience.

“The approach we’re taking now is based on the technologies that are out there,” Gibbs said. “What are the problems that we can solve now and can start to get capabilities out into our formations so that we can iterate on the platform-level autonomy?”

The focus of technology development also is changing. Previous attempts to introduce autonomous systems focused on platforms, Gibbs said, citing attempts to pair robotic “wingmen” to crewed tank platoons, like the RCV program.

This approach drove program officials to pay too much attention to the robotic platforms themselves rather than on perfecting the autonomous software algorithms and connections into the command-and-control systems that are required to make such concepts work. So Gibbs is focusing on those fundamental, enabling technologies rather than the hardware.

“Let’s network our systems,” he said. “Let’s make them talk to each other, so you can move data and you can do so reliably. Let’s get to one-to-many control—so I can have one operator controlling multiple systems off of a user interface—and get to where we can task them, versus controlling them directly. And then we can start laying in those cross-cutting algorithms to get after those harder problems.”

Parts of the autonomy strategy remain at the draft stage of the requirements process. But they involve the Army’s most visible and expensive acquisition program.

The Army accelerated the fielding schedule last year for the initial crewed version of the MV-75. The first production aircraft is scheduled to enter service in 2028, while the prototypes should start being delivered for testing this year or early next year. In the meantime, the Army is drafting requirements for the follow-on modernization program of the MV-75, also known as the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).

“The FLRAA modernization annex will include some of those capabilities we just talked about, such as autonomy,” said Col. Patrick Taylor, future capability director for Army aviation.

In addition to the FLRAA modernization option, the Army also is taking another look at making the wider fleet of crewed helicopters optionally piloted. Army leaders first articulated a desire for helicopters to fly with or without pilots, depending on the mission, more than 15 years ago. Certain technological limits still remain, however.

The sensors and computer processing required for some combat missions are excessive, for instance. Taylor singled out a nighttime raid by special operations forces on assault aircraft, such as the Sikorsky MH-60. Those operations involve using thermal imaging sensors. To operate the helicopter autonomously based on those sensors, the onboard processing requirement would be prohibitive.

“But moving aircraft point-to-point in the rear area? Maybe there’s a great use case for that,” Taylor said. “We know that the contested logistics program is looking at a capability to use autonomous rotorcraft to move tonnage from point to point across the battlespace. So that’s one capability we’re kind of looking at now.”

The aviation autonomy strategy also includes uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), including a long-sought replacement for the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) MQ-1C Gray Eagle, which entered service in 2013.

Indeed, the original vision for the Future Vertical Lift family of systems included a new Advanced UAS (AUAS) to fly alongside the FLRAA and FARA platforms. But the Army postponed the AUAS requirement to allow an overstretched aviation workforce to focus on crewed systems. Then FARA was canceled, and FLRAA is poised to enter flight testing, so the resources to manage the acquisition of an MQ-1C replacement are available again.

The Army has scheduled a summit meeting with industry March 10-12 to discuss the requirements for a “Group 4+ Short/Vertical-Takeoff-and-Landing” (S-VTOL) aircraft. The meeting follows the launch in January of an S-VTOL Challenge, which has asked industry what they can deliver in the short term and long term. The Army wants an aircraft heavier than 1,320 lb. that can operate independently of runways and features advanced sensors, such as synthetic aperture radars with moving-target-indicator modes.

GA-ASI has proposed the short-takeoff-and-landing variant of the Mojave UAS, which is being codeveloped with South Korean company Hanwha Defense.

The small quadrotor drones so prevalent in the war between Russia and Ukraine also feature prominently in the U.S. Army’s autonomy push. The Short-Range Reconnaissance program represents the Army’s largest investment in small drones, but the lengthy acquisition cycle within the program of record format means units struggle to keep up with the state of the art. In addition to the sheer numbers of drones produced for both sides in the Russia-Ukraine War, new capabilities and countermeasures are being fielded in cycles measuring weeks instead of years.

In response, the U.S. Army is dramatically changing how small drones are acquired. Rather than acquiring them in annual lots through programs of record, the Army is delegating procurement dollars and acquisition authorities to the operating units. The soldiers will be able to shop for and buy from an approved list of drones on an online marketplace similar to Amazon. Soldiers will be able to leave reviews that other units can read before they make their purchases.

“When I talk to industry . . . I tell them you need to perform,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Best, the marketplace lead for the Army aviation branch. “So if you say your system goes 40 km [25 mi.], it needs to go 40 km. Otherwise, you’re going to hear about that from our soldiers. It’s a free market approach, so the cream will rise to the top.”

The Army originally planned to launch the internal website for the marketplace by the end of April, but the deadline has been accelerated to March, Best said.