Brenda Marie Rivers
Boeing and the government of Queensland in Australia have concluded a 10-day flight test involving five autonomous surrogate aircraft that operate as part of the company’s airpower teaming system.
Boeing said Wednesday the test took place at the Queensland Flight Test Range and is part of the Advanced Queensland Autonomous Systems Platform Technology Project.
The company worked with industry partners such as Amber Technology, Five Rings Aerospace, McDermott Aviation, Premier Box and RFDesigns for the effort.
During the assessment, the team implemented a phased approach to testing the 11-foot jets that were built with data-sharing and command-and-control technologies.
Emily Hughes, director of Boeing's Phantom Works International business, said the team used artificial intelligence algorithms and datalink elements to train the autonomous system and enable it to communicate with other platforms.
Boeing’s airpower teaming system has a flight capacity of over 2K nautical miles and is designed to work with manned platforms for early-warning and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations.
