U.S. Air Force Tests MQ-20 Avenger Passive IR Targeting for Radar-Silent CCA Operations.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and the U.S. Air Force have used the MQ-20 Avenger in a February 24, 2026, flight exercise to demonstrate a more operationally relevant form of Collaborative Combat Aircraft autonomy: passive infrared target localization, autonomous mission execution, and cooperative targeting inside a large-force scenario.

This shifts Collaborative Combat Aircraft development from remotely piloted systems to survivable, sensor-driven combat nodes that can operate in electromagnetic silence. In a conflict against a peer adversary with dense surveillance and long-range air defenses, the ability to generate targeting data without emitting signals directly increases aircraft survivability and preserves combat effectiveness.

Related News: General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger Drone Completes First Live Autonomous Air-to-Air Intercept Test.

GA-ASI and the U.S. Air Force used the MQ-20 Avenger to demonstrate passive infrared-based autonomy for future Collaborative Combat Aircraft, showing how reusable software could help U.S. forces field more survivable, networked, and tactically effective drones in contested airspace (Picture source: U.S. DoW).

At the center of the demonstration was a specific configuration rather than a new airframe. GA-ASI paired the government’s Autonomy Start Kit with its TacACE autonomy stack, a tactical proliferated low-earth-orbit datalink, the TacPad Pilot Vehicle Interface, and an infrared search-and-track architecture using Single Ship Ranging to estimate target range and support engagement logic without active radar emissions.

That configuration is tactically significant because it attacks one of the hardest problems in modern air combat: generating target-quality data while remaining electronically quiet. In this case, the MQ-20 used IR sensing and SSR to detect, classify, localize, and track airborne threats passively, while the autonomy stack managed behaviors and coordinated through resilient datalinks. For U.S. forces preparing for a fight against a peer with dense electronic surveillance, long-range surface-to-air missiles, and counter-air networks, passive ranging is not a refinement; it is a survivability requirement. A CCA that can stay in EMCON and still contribute to the kill chain is far more useful than one that must radiate to be relevant.

On the armament side, the February exercise appears to have focused on sensing, localization, and engagement logic rather than a publicly disclosed live weapons release, and that distinction matters. The MQ-20 nevertheless remains a credible surrogate because the Avenger already has the physical configuration expected of a strike-capable autonomous jet: an internal bay for about 3,000 to 3,500 pounds of weapons or sensors, six external hardpoints, and compatibility with weapons including Hellfire, GBU-12/49, GBU-31, GBU-32, GBU-38 JDAM, GBU-39, and GBU-16/48. In practical terms, this means the aircraft can be used not only to test software, but also to model how future CCA platforms could carry sensors internally for lower signature, preserve hardpoints for mission tailoring, and evolve from ISR and targeting roles to limited kinetic employment or the carriage of air-launched effects. That last point is reinforced by GA-ASI’s 2024 demonstration of A2LE release from the MQ-20’s internal weapons bay.

TacACE, built in alignment with the government’s ASK architecture, acts as the autonomy layer that translates operator intent into aircraft behaviors, mission execution, cooperative targeting, and dynamic decision support. TacPad PVI appears to provide the pilot-vehicle interface through which humans supervise, approve, and shape actions rather than manually fly every maneuver. Earlier GA demonstrations showed the same MQ-20 autonomously patrolling combat air patrol stations, accepting beyond-line-of-sight tasking, replanning routes around pop-up threats, and operating through distributed cloud-enabled command-and-control nodes; together, those events suggest the software stack is being matured as a modular autonomy core rather than a one-off demo application.

GA-ASI describes the Avenger as a CCA surrogate and says it has filled that role for more than five years, before and after the arrival of the purpose-built XQ-67A and the YFQ-42A. The strongest implication is that the autonomy software is being proven on a mature, jet-powered testbed so it can transition into operational CCA designs later. The Air Force has not publicly spelled out every software migration path, but the use of a government-owned ASK reference, common control approaches, and open integration work across Air Force and Navy demonstrations strongly indicates the objective is portability across multiple autonomous aircraft rather than confinement to the MQ-20 alone.

Operationally, this improves three capabilities at once. First, it increases survivability by enabling passive detection and cooperative targeting in denied electromagnetic environments. Second, it increases tempo by allowing the aircraft to process sensor inputs, estimate range, maintain custody, and execute mission behaviors with less continuous operator micromanagement. Third, it strengthens force packaging by letting CCAs serve as forward sensors, weapons carriers, decoys, or attritable escorts around crewed fighters. The result is a more distributed tactical formation in which risk can be pushed outward from scarce manned aircraft toward cheaper uncrewed nodes.

This is why the development is important for the United States. The Air Force’s CCA enterprise is designed to deliver at least 1,000 aircraft and to provide affordable mass, extended reach, survivability, and lethality at lower cost than traditional fighters. In a Pacific theater scenario, especially, the United States needs more combat mass, more sensing nodes, more missile-truck capacity, and more ways to keep F-35s, F-47-class assets, and other crewed platforms outside the most dangerous threat envelopes. Autonomy proven on the MQ-20 helps close that gap by reducing integration risk before fielding on the YFQ-42A and related systems. It also supports a broader American advantage: pairing industrial scale with reusable autonomy software, common interfaces, and modular mission systems so new unmanned aircraft can be introduced faster than an adversary can adapt.

Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.

Evan studied International Relations and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.