This military exercise, part of the U.S. Army's EDGE24 experiment held in Yuma, Arizona, marked a significant achievement for RTX. Teams from Collins Aerospace and Raytheon, both part of RTX, successfully executed a mission in-flight that had previously been confined to simulations.
Though UAVs have been a part of reconnaissance and strike operations for some time, this demonstration revealed that they can now operate with minimal human intervention, relying on autonomy to make real-time decisions. Two key RTX technologies powered this test: Collins Aerospace's RapidEdge mission system and Raytheon's CODE autonomy.
Instead of following strict, step-by-step commands or pre-planned routes, the UAVs were given a broad mission objective. They then communicated among themselves to strategize and adapt to obstacles as they arose. Even when the communication link between ground and air was disabled, simulating a communications-denied environment, the UAVs continued their mission without assistance. Additionally, the UAVs coordinated seamlessly with Raytheon's Coyote Block 3 surrogate.
"This is where we really stood out," said Bernd Knox, business development lead at Collins, highlighting the system's ability to distribute critical data to both the Raytheon team and the Army's Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team. "Information is useless unless you can share it with the appropriate users."
The EDGE24 event, known as the Experimentation Demonstration Gateway Event, tested how emerging launched effect technologies can integrate with other systems on a simulated battlefield. This aligns with the Army's Future Vertical Lift initiative aimed at modernizing its rotorcraft fleet. Peter Laird, program manager for autonomy and launched effects at Collins, emphasized the value of testing in real-world conditions.
"Getting an air vehicle to fly is now the easy part - and it's not easy," Laird said. "Autonomous behavior adds a whole layer of complexity that is very difficult to validate until you're up in the air."
The demonstration also underscored the speed and agility of Collins' RapidEdge team. Their system was developed in just five months using a combination of advanced prototyping, integration, and simulation techniques. These simulations can run entire missions in seconds, while "hardware-in-the-loop" testing pairs simulation data with actual flight hardware to fine-tune performance before a full test.
"What we've shown and provided is a platform and an ecosystem where they can continue to add in new behaviors, validate them, learn and then come back and repeat that process very quickly on the order of months, not years," Laird said.
RTX's goal is not just to provide one-off capabilities like collaborative autonomy, but to support the Army in developing flexible platforms capable of handling multiple mission types. While the systems showcased at EDGE24 are still in their early stages, the team will build on this experience to further refine and develop the technology for real-world deployment.
"No one knows exactly what the right solution is yet to solve problems that we likely haven't even encountered," Laird added. "We've placed our bet on the way that we're optimizing for rapid testing and deployment of autonomy and behavior development."
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