Airbus Shows the Army a Cargo Helicopter That Flies Itself Around Surprise No Fly Zones

The briefing

Airbus has flown its MQ 72C demonstrator for the United States Army at Huntsville in Alabama, taking a cargo helicopter built for a Marine Corps program and pitching it to a second service. The flights showed the aircraft holding autonomous hover and traffic patterns and rerouting on its own when a no fly zone appeared mid flight, with a safety pilot aboard who never had to take control, according to Airbus program lead Jaysen Yochim in remarks reported by TWZ.

Why it matters

Both services are planning for resupply across far longer distances, into places where sending a crew is the riskiest part of the mission. The Army has not written a formal requirement for a cargo drone helicopter yet, but it has commissioned a study of converting part of its Lakota fleet, and demonstrations like this one are how an unbuilt requirement starts to take shape.

Key details

• TWZ reported that Airbus self funded the Huntsville demonstration and flew five demonstration flights at Huntsville Executive Airport, showing autonomous hover work, step turns and fly through turns, plus normal airfield traffic patterns.
• When a no fly zone popped up during a flight, the aircraft made its own routing decisions around it from an initial plan supplied by the human operator, Yochim told TWZ, and the onboard safety pilot never had to take control.
• Aviation Week described a 45 minute Huntsville flight in which the demonstrator autonomously taxied, took off, flew to a landing zone, waved off, and landed at an alternate position, again with a safety pilot aboard.
• The demonstrator is based on the crewed UH 72B Lakota, itself a variant of the Airbus H145, and it uses Shield AI HiveMind autonomy fed by forward and rearward LIDAR sensors and a nose camera, according to TWZ. Airbus partners on the program are L3Harris Technologies, Shield AI, and Parry Labs.
• TWZ reported that the team has already commanded the aircraft from a ground control station over Starlink from as far as 70 miles away, and that control from a Samsung tablet has also been demonstrated.
• Aviation Week reported that the Army and Airbus are discussing four options for 215 UH 72A trainers being replaced by Robinson R66 helicopters, and that one option is converting some aircraft into autonomous machines for logistics and strike missions. Yochim told Aviation Week the Army interest runs broader than cargo alone, toward a multi mission platform that could later carry launched effects and electronic warfare gear.
• The fully uncrewed configuration is still ahead of the demonstrator. TWZ reported that planned nose clamshell doors for fast cargo loading are designed but not yet flight tested, with integration now aimed at the 2029 to 2030 timeframe as Marine Corps Aerial Logistics Connector funding has slipped.