Airbus and Lakota Connector partners successfully execute fourth autonomous flight test period

Airbus U.S. Space & Defense, in partnership with Shield AI, L3Harris Technologies, and Parry Labs, completed its fourth autonomous flight test period on the H145 Airbus helicopter and successfully integrated all four company’s technologies into a single aircraft together for the first time.

The test flights, which took place at the Airbus facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, focused on refining the aircraft’s perception system to ensure it provides accurate, real-time information to an autonomous pilot ensuring obstacles are avoided within a landing zone.

“This test was vital for us to show the Lakota Connector’s development in performing aerial logistics missions for the U.S. Marine Corps,” said Rob Geckle, Chairman and CEO of Airbus U.S. Space and Defense. “Perception systems can make or break the success of an unmanned mission in the field, and I am excited to see our aircraft perform so well under uncertain conditions.”

During the tests, each partner’s contribution enabled the H145 aircraft to autonomously evaluate a landing zone, detect any obstacles obstructing it, and reroute to an alternate site as needed.

“L3Harris is delivering the digital backbone that advances autonomous aviation from concept to combat-ready capability,” said Jason Lambert, President, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, L3Harris. “Our Modular Open System Architecture enabled this team to integrate four partner technologies seamlessly, demonstrating the speed and interoperability that will define the future of unmanned logistics for the Marine Corps.”

Shield AI’s Hivemind demonstrated its core capabilities and autonomous perception of the aircraft.

“This H145 flight test proves Hivemind delivers scalable autonomy across rotary and fixed-wing aircraft without custom redesign,” said Christian Gutierrez, vice president of Hivemind Solutions at Shield AI. “That speed and flexibility are critical in contested logistics.”

Parry Labs provided edge compute and autonomy-enabling software infrastructure supporting onboard perception processing and real-time decision-making.

“Autonomy only works when perception and mission software operate together at the edge,” said Parry Labs CEO John “JD” Parkes. “This flight test showed how partner technologies can be rapidly integrated to deliver real-world operational capabilities.”

Airbus U.S. is currently in the second year of the Aerial Logistics Connector Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) Rapid Prototyping Program, which aims to provide the service with aircraft prototypes to demonstrate capabilities to the warfighter through a series of operational demonstrations and experiments.

In May 2024, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) awarded Airbus U.S. Space & Defense a Phase I Other Transaction Authority (OTA) through the Naval Aviation Systems Consortium, based on its unmanned UH-72 Logistics Connector concept, a variant of the proven UH-72 Lakota platform.

The Aerial Logistics Connector effort is one of several initiatives across the Department of Defense aimed at delivering logistical support in distributed environments during peer or near-peer conflicts.