The UAVs picked up RF energy to detect possible threats, assessed the risk they posed, and recorded their locations. Within seconds, the UAVs sent the data to a command station on the ground, which tasked other UAVs to confirm the targets and simulate a strike.

The military exercise in Yuma, Arizona, was part of the U.S. Army's EDGE24 experiment, where teams from RTX businesses Collins Aerospace and Raytheon did something in flight that they had only done in simulations.

UAVs have been used in reconnaissance and strike missions for years, but the demo showed they could complete them with human guidance for only critical mission decisions. The demonstration used two RTX autonomy solutions: Collins Aerospace's RapidEdge mission system and Raytheon's CODE autonomy.

Rather than carrying out step-by-step instructions or a pre-planned route, the UAVs were provided a general mission. They were then able to communicate with each other and figure out how to achieve the goal while reacting to obstacles in real time.

The technology worked when networks were unavailable, too. To simulate a communications-denied environment in battle, Collins turned off the ground-to-air command link, and the UAVs completed their mission without help from the control station. They also communicated seamlessly with the team manning Raytheon's surrogate for the Coyote Block 3 launched effect.

"That's really where we shined," said Bernd Knox, a business development lead at Collins, pointing out that the UAVs distributed data to both the Raytheon team and the Army's Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team control center. "Information is useless unless you can share it with the appropriate users."