General Atomics Leverages AI Alongside Cloud-Based C2 in Latest Autonomous Aircraft Demonstration

SAN DIEGO - 04 March 2026 - General Atomics Integrated Intelligence, Inc. (GA-Intelligence) and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) successfully completed a milestone demonstration on March 4th, validating the use of Agentic AI to enable autonomous tactical reasoning and decision making beyond line of sight (BLOS) in a sensor Emission Control (EMCON) environment. The event featured Optix.C2 cloud software, a product from GA- Intelligence for Command and Control (C2), with the operator in Virginia, and an MQ-20 Avenger^® unmanned jet, furnished by GA-ASI as a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) surrogate, deployed in California.

The Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission began with the Avenger autonomously patrolling a designated Combat Air Patrol (CAP) zone. Optix fused data from off-board terrestrial and space-based sensors to detect a target of interest (ToI) and fed this information about a BLOS target to the aircraft onboard autonomy. Optix.C2 immediately alerted the operator of the ToI and recommended an ISR mission to improve custody of the object. Upon operator confirmation, the Tactical Autonomy Core Ecosystem (TacACE^®) maneuvered the Avenger on a flight path which was optimized for the target ISR mission.

Enroute, offboard sensors identified a pop-up threat to mission outside of organic sensor range. To avoid the pop-up threat, TacACE selected a revised COA based on optimization of Risk to Force and Risk to Mission as dictated by the operator's intent, then completed its mission and returned to CAP without additional operator input. This showed the ability of autonomous platforms to perform real time mission replanning to optimize for mission objectives as the battlespace evolves and demonstrated the use of Agentic AI as a force multiplier for battle management in complex and cluttered mission environments.

Optix.C2 can be deployed in the cloud, accessible from anywhere. Its ground and air-based nodes provide low-latency, localized C2 functionality while remaining networked to the broader operational picture, enabling real-time coordination across multiple domains.

GA-ASI's MQ-20 Avenger^® used the latest government reference autonomy software through a unified operator interface capable of deployment in virtually any cloud environment.

This demonstration reinforces the value of an Agentic AI Assistant in reducing cognitive load on human operators and General Atomics' commitment to growing sophisticated autonomous systems by fusing onboard and offboard sensor data for onboard decision-making to execute complex mission profiles in denied environments.

About GA-ASI

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., is the world's foremost builder of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Logging more than 9 million flight hours, the Predator^® line of UAS has flown for over 30 years and includes MQ-9A Reaper^®, MQ-1C Gray Eagle^®, MQ-20 Avenger^®, and MQ-9B SkyGuardian^®/SeaGuardian^®. The company is dedicated to providing long- endurance, multi-mission solutions that deliver persistent situational awareness and rapid strike.

For more information, visit www.ga-asi.com

Avenger, EagleEye, Gray Eagle, Lynx, Predator, Reaper, SeaGuardian, and SkyGuardian are trademarks of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., registered in the United States and/or other countries.

About GA Intelligence

General Atomics Integrated Intelligence, Inc (GA-i3) is a data science, software development, and systems engineering firm focused on developing advanced analytic capabilities to customers in both public and private sectors, with a strong emphasis on tools in support of spatio-temporal (space and time) data management, multi-source/multi-INT correlation and data fusion, tracking, entity resolution, location forecasting, and multi-domain global situational awareness (MDGSA) leveraging extremely high volume/velocity data sources.

For more information, visit www.ga-i3.com.