U.S. Air Force Pairs F-22 Fighter With MQ-20 Drone in Live Manned-Unmanned Combat Drill.

The U.S. Air Force and General Atomics flew an F-22 Raptor as a command aircraft directing an MQ-20 Avenger unmanned jet during a live autonomy test at Edwards Air Force Base. The demonstration validates how stealth fighters could control armed Collaborative Combat Aircraft in contested airspace, expanding reach while reducing pilot risk.

The U.S. Air Force and General Atomics have flown an F-22 Raptor as a command aircraft directing an MQ-20 Avenger unmanned jet, validating autonomy and tactical control methods that would let crewed fighters employ armed collaborative aircraft as extendable sensors and shooters in contested airspace. The test, executed from Edwards Air Force Base, paired the Raptor with government reference autonomy software and used a tactical data link to coordinate maneuvers, waypoints, and mission tasks that included Combat Air Patrol and an airborne threat engagement sequence. In effect, the sortie exercised how pilot-issued commands can be translated into autonomous actions, expanding the formation’s reach while keeping the manned fighter focused on decision-making and survivability.
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An F-22 Raptor directs an MQ-20 Avenger during a U.S. Air Force autonomy exercise, demonstrating manned-unmanned teaming that enables stealth fighters to command armed collaborative drones as forward sensors and precision strike platforms in contested airspace (Picture source: General Atomics).

The event was described as a live manned-unmanned teaming demonstration where the MQ-20 exchanged messages with the F-22 and then executed teaming commands sent from the cockpit through the Autonodyne Bashi Pilot Vehicle Interface, effectively turning pilot intent into machine-readable autonomy directives. In operational terms, that cockpit-to-drone pathway matters less as a one-off integration milestone and more as a template for how the Air Force intends to scale Collaborative Combat Aircraft control: short, tactically meaningful commands that drive autonomous behaviors rather than joystick-like remote piloting.

The technical backdrop is the Air Force’s push toward a government-owned autonomy backbone that can be reused across airframes and vendors. The service has stated it is implementing the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture across multiple Collaborative Combat Aircraft platforms to accelerate software-first integration and avoid single-vendor lock-in, with mission autonomy vendors integrating against the government architecture. That policy context helps explain why an F-22 and an MQ-20 surrogate CCA would be used for a high-visibility autonomy exercise: the Air Force is trying to prove that autonomy can be swapped, updated, and certified faster than traditional flight-program cycles without rewriting every interface from scratch.

Command and control is the make-or-break technical seam for any loyal wingman concept, and the Raptor’s evolving data link suite is central to the story. The F-22 historically relied on stealth-optimized intra-flight networking for Raptor-to-Raptor coordination, but modernization has been driving toward broader tactical interoperability. Recent upgrades have highlighted Link 16 transmit capabilities as part of Raptor Agile Capability Release updates that enable two-way exchange of J-series messages, the lingua franca of joint tactical pictures. Modernization efforts have also framed tactical link upgrades as a pathway to expanded Link 16 transmit capability through MIDS-JTRS, underscoring that this is an intentional enabling layer for manned-unmanned teaming at scale.

The armaments dimension is the tactical purpose of pairing autonomy with a jet-powered unmanned platform. The F-22 remains a premier air-to-air platform with an internal loadout that typically includes six AIM-120 AMRAAMs and two AIM-9 Sidewinders, plus the M61A2 20 mm cannon. In an air-to-ground configuration, it can also carry two 1,000-pound class JDAMs internally. That weapons mix makes the Raptor a lethal quarterback, but also a high-demand, low-density asset the Air Force cannot afford to expose unnecessarily when operating inside modern integrated air defense systems.

The MQ-20 Avenger, by contrast, offers a useful blend of speed, altitude, payload, and lower-risk employment that maps directly onto Collaborative Combat Aircraft force-multiplier logic. The Avenger’s internal payload is rated at approximately 3,500 pounds with a total payload capacity of around 6,500 pounds. It can carry AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and a range of guided bombs such as GBU-12 and GBU-49 laser-guided weapons, GBU-31 and GBU-32 JDAM variants, GBU-38 JDAM, and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb. In addition to kinetic armament, the aircraft can host electro-optical and infrared sensors, multi-mode radar, signals intelligence, and electronic support measures packages, and communications relay payloads.

In practical terms, that gives an autonomy-enabled MQ-20 three credible tactical roles: a precision-strike shooter that can be pushed forward, a sensor node that can hold a radar or SIGINT posture where manned aircraft would be at elevated risk, and a communications relay bridging formations or pushing data back to a stealth command platform. By distributing weapons and sensors across manned and unmanned aircraft, the Air Force can complicate adversary targeting and expand the effective battlespace footprint without proportionally increasing risk to pilots.

The air-to-air threat engagement tasking exercised during the demonstration should be read as a doctrinal rehearsal for distributed counter-air rather than a claim that the MQ-20 is replacing fighters. A forward unmanned jet on Combat Air Patrol can widen the defended footprint, create additional engagement dilemmas, and present multiple vectors that strain enemy tracking and fire-control systems. Even when the unmanned aircraft is not the primary trigger-puller, its autonomy can reduce pilot workload by handling station-keeping, geometry management, and timed maneuver execution, leaving the human to decide when to escalate, disengage, or cue effects.

Those effects are expanding beyond traditional bombs and missiles. The MQ-20’s internal bay has previously been used to release an Advanced Air-Launched Effects vehicle during testing, aligning with the broader U.S. appetite for low-cost, modular airborne effectors that can extend reach, sensing, and survivability. When combined with cockpit-issued autonomy commands, that creates a credible near-term pathway to mixed loads where an unmanned jet carries not only precision munitions but also expendable decoys, sensors, or electronic payloads that help the manned force penetrate, confuse defenses, and preserve high-end fighters for decisive engagements.

The project fits the Air Force’s drive for affordable mass and resilient kill chains under the Collaborative Combat Aircraft umbrella, particularly for Indo-Pacific pacing scenarios where distances are long and attrition assumptions are severe. The technology demonstration at Edwards is less about a single MQ-20 sortie and more about validating the control surface between human decision-making and machine execution using a government reference autonomy and open architecture approach. If the Air Force can standardize that interface, it gains the ability to field capability upgrades as software drops, iterate tactics faster, and integrate new autonomy suppliers without grounding fleets for extended periods. That agility is central to the service’s vision of next-generation air dominance built not only on exquisite fighters, but on scalable, software-defined combat mass.