"We did a demonstration for the Army down in Huntsville, really to show all the capabilities that we’ve been able to develop so far on the Marine Corps-funded program,” Jaysen Yochim, Senior Director for the ALC program at Airbus, said at AUSA.
What Airbus flew at Huntsville
Airbus conducted a self‑funded demonstration of its MQ‑72C demonstrator last week at Huntsville Executive Airport, outside Huntsville, Alabama. The team completed five demonstration flights intended to show autonomous capabilities already developed under Marine Corps funding. Those flights included complex hovering patterns, step turns and fly‑through turns, normal traffic patterns, and scenarios in which a no‑fly zone appeared midflight and the aircraft had to route around it autonomously.
The demonstrator is derived from the crewed UH‑72B Lakota — itself a variant of Airbus’s H145 twin‑engine light helicopter — and during the Huntsville flights a pilot remained on board as a safety margin. According to Yochim, that pilot “never had to take control of the aircraft once.” As of April, Airbus and its partners had conducted four rounds of autonomous flight testing of an initial demonstrator not yet in a fully uncrewed configuration.
Autonomy stack and beyond‑line‑of‑sight command
The MQ‑72C demonstrator carries two LIDAR sensors, front and back, plus an electro‑optical camera in the nose. Those sensors feed imagery into a flight computer running Shield AI’s HiveMind autonomy package; Yochim said HiveMind’s perception systems “make decisions on the go.” Parry Labs has led ground control station work, moving command inputs from an in‑cockpit autonomous operator to remote human‑in‑the‑loop control.
Airbus reported that the aircraft has received commands over Starlink, enabling beyond‑line‑of‑sight control. Yochim said the team has performed autonomous flights commanded from up to 70 miles away, and that the MQ‑72C can accept commands both from a ground control station and from a Samsung tablet.
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See what we buildDesign gaps and the planned cargo pass‑through
The demonstrator lacks several features that Airbus expects on a final configuration. Notably, clamshell nose doors — intended to create an open, pass‑through main cabin for rapid loading and unloading of cargo — have been designed and 3D rendered and have undergone some testing, but have not yet been flight‑tested. Yochim said wind‑tunnel and flight testing “take time” and that Airbus is aiming to integrate the nose doors in the 2029–2030 timeframe, a schedule tied in part to delayed Marine Corps funding.
The UH‑72 design already features clamshell doors at the rear of the fuselage; the MQ‑72C’s end goal is a fully uncrewed variant that offers a main‑cabin pass‑through to speed logistics on expeditionary operations.
Marine Corps ALC program, competitors, and parallel efforts
The MQ‑72C work to date has been funded by the Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector (ALC) program. Airbus is teamed with L3Harris Technologies, Shield AI, and Parry Labs on that effort. The Marine Corps is seeking a new uncrewed cargo‑carrying connector and expects to demonstrate capability in an operationally relevant context next year.
Other competitors are under contract for the ALC program: Near Earth Autonomy and Honeywell are developing a design based on the Leonardo AW139. Separate efforts include Sikorsky’s work on a fully uncrewed Black Hawk with a clamshell nose, Robinson Unmanned’s pilotless R66 with forward clamshell doors, and Bell with Near Earth Autonomy developing an uncrewed Model 505 Jet Ranger X. Airbus’s European arm is also promoting a functionally similar U145 uncrewed helicopter, with a June 8, 2026 tweet stating its first flight is set for late 2026.
What this means for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, and industry partners
- U.S. Army: Airbus presented the demonstration to the Army as a way to show capabilities achieved under Marine Corps funding. The Army operates crewed UH‑72s today in non‑combat roles including counter‑drug and border patrol missions and accepted the demonstration, signaling at least institutional interest even though the Army has not formalized a cargo‑drone requirement.
- U.S. Marine Corps: The Marines continue to fund the ALC program and expect an operational demonstration next year; delayed funding has shifted some integration milestones, such as the planned nose doors, into 2029–2030.
- Industry partners and competitors: Firms building autonomy, ground control systems, and satellite command links will be tested by requirements for beyond‑line‑of‑sight command, robust perception systems, and rapid cargo handling. Multiple vendors are pursuing overlapping technical approaches, from H145/UH‑72 derivatives to AW139‑ and Black Hawk‑based designs.
The demonstration in Huntsville put a working demonstrator in front of the Army and illustrated practical elements — autonomy in hover and traffic patterns, perception‑driven routing around no‑fly zones, and beyond‑line‑of‑sight command via Starlink — while leaving key engineering steps, such as clamshell nose doors, for a later phase. The Marine Corps plans an operationally relevant demonstration next year; Airbus plans nose‑door integration in 2029–2030 and markets an uncrewed U145 with a first flight set for late 2026.
Source: https://www.twz.com/air/mq-72c-cargo-helicopter-drone-capabilities-demonstrated-for-u-s-army
