Navy League 2026: Airbus US advances autonomous H145 helicopter for USMC

Airbus US' H145 Aerial Logistics Connector demonstrator during its fourth autonomous test flight at the company's facility in Grand Prairie, Texas (Airbus US Space & Defense)

Airbus US Space & Defense and its partners — Shield AI, L3Harris Technologies, and Parry Labs — completed a fourth autonomous flight test for the US Marine Corps' Aerial Logistics Connector (ALC) programme.

The company is in the second year of the ALC Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) rapid prototyping programme, which is intended to deliver prototypes for demonstrations and experiments, an Airbus US statement on 15 April noted.

The partners recently completed the autonomous flight test with the H145D3 ALC helicopter, marking a first with technologies from all four companies integrated into a single aircraft, the statement said.

Testing at 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”, the statement said.

Perception testing

During the test, the aircraft autonomously evaluated a landing zone, detecting obstacles, and rerouting to an alternate site when required, the statement said.

Different obstacles were placed on a helipad and the autonomous helicopter “flew different stop and stare positions to allow Hivemind to determine go [or] no go, on the landing zone”, according to a Shield AI video provided to Janes .

The trials started with nothing in the landing zone and then moved to an SUV and then smaller objects down to a Pelican case. For each object, testing involved different altitudes, headings, and ranges, the video said.