Airbus has demonstrated the MQ-72C autonomous cargo helicopter for the U.S. Army, presenting a Marine Corps-funded prototype as a potential model for future Army logistics missions.
The self-funded demonstration took place last week at Huntsville Executive Airport and included five flights, according to The War Zone’s report on the demonstration. Airbus program representative Jaysen Yochim said the flights showed autonomous hovering, complex turns, standard traffic patterns and responses to no-fly zones that appeared during a flight. A human operator supplied the initial flight plan, while a pilot remained aboard as a safety measure and did not need to take control, according to Yochim.
The current MQ-72C is based on the crewed UH-72B Lakota, itself derived from Airbus’ H145 helicopter. The Army operates crewed UH-72 aircraft, primarily in non-combat roles inside the United States. The MQ-72C demonstrator is not yet fully uncrewed, but its navigation and perception equipment includes forward- and rear-facing LIDAR sensors and a nose-mounted electro-optical camera.
Airbus partner Shield AI provides the HiveMind autonomy software, while Parry Labs has led ground-control-station work. The aircraft has been autonomously commanded from ground stations up to 70 miles away over Starlink, according to Yochim. L3Harris, which is part of the industry team, says the partners completed a fourth autonomous flight test with their technologies operating together on an H-145 aircraft, as described in L3Harris’ program account.
The demonstrator still lacks planned clamshell doors at the nose and an open pass-through cabin. Airbus said those doors have been designed and tested in non-flight activities, with integration now expected around 2029-2030. The Marine Corps is separately pursuing its Aerial Logistics Connector program, where Airbus’ team is competing against a Near Earth Autonomy-Honeywell design based on the Leonardo AW139.