Autonomous cargo flights across the Pacific were a little-known highlight this summer at the Air Force’s massive Resolute Force Pacific exercise, designed to prepare for a potential conflict with China.
The flights between multiple Hawaiian islands, operated by a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan powered by Joby Aviation’s Superpilot software, were remotely operated from Guam, which is about 4,000 miles away. The goal is to make logistics flights in the vast theater cheaper during wartime.
“A safety pilot was on board each flight to monitor the system and intervene, if necessary, though no manual inputs were required,” according to the command’s website.
The Air Force has previously tested autonomous cargo flights during military exercises, but this was the first time in the Indo-Pacific, and the first time they were tested “against real-world challenges such as long distances, dynamic routing, diverse weather, and operations with allies and partners,” a Pacific Air Forces spokesperson told Defense One via email.
Logistics are a critical challenge in the Pacific, and the Air Force has been working for years to expand its total bases in the region, pre-position supplies, and become more survivable and mobile. The concept, known as Agile Combat Employment, was a big focus of the Department of the Air Force’s REFORPAC exercise, which featured more than 400 aircraft and more than 11,000 U.S. Air Force members, as well as joint troops and partner nations. It stretched from Hawaii to Guam and Japan, as well as other locations across the theater.
“We receive the combat air forces from the force providers back in [the continental United States], and then we execute them in the theater to conduct [agile combat employment] operations and conduct combat air operations,” Lt. Col. Jarred Chamberland, who was the lead planner for REFORPAC, told reporters in July. The goal of the overall exercise was to “facilitate the movement of forces into theater…sustain those forces while they're operating within the theater for almost a month here” under real-world conditions, and learn from that while incorporating allies and partners.
One of the main takeaways from the exercise was that autonomous flights using smaller planes, like a Cessna, can reduce the burden on larger cargo aircraft and airmen.
“Instead of relying on a single aircraft, a network of autonomous cargo planes could create a resilient and unpredictable logistics web. This approach frees larger aircraft like the C-17 and C-130 to focus on strategic, long-haul missions, while smaller autonomous platforms take on shorter, riskier deliveries to austere or dispersed locations,” the spokesperson said. “REFORPAC also showed how autonomy can reduce the logistics burden on Airmen, enabling them to focus on higher-priority mission tasks.”
The Air Force is still working on how to best incorporate autonomous logistics and plans to test products from a range of companies in future exercises and initiatives. Testing autonomous cargo flights during REFORPAC was an important step in “generating data and user feedback that will help refine both the technology and the operational concepts for contested and dynamic environments,” the spokesperson said.
The Air Force recently signed a $17.4 million contract with Reliable Robotics to deploy a pilot-less C-208 for logistics operations in the Pacific, after testing it in military exercises last year. The company is also co-developing autonomous architecture with the service.
Moreover, AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation agency, has been experimenting with electric aircraft by multiple vendors—including Joby Aviation—in recent years.
“AFWERX has partnered with Joby’s team for several years with increasingly complex development and demonstration efforts of autonomy to support contested logistics missions,” Lt. Col. Jonathan Gilbert, AFWERX prime division chief, said in a statement. “REFORPAC was an opportunity to demonstrate the technology in a realistic environment and highlight the potential impact of these autonomous systems. The lessons learned from this exercise participation are vital to guiding our focus as we continue development of affordable technologies that support the needs of our Airmen.”
Joby Aviation also recently teamed up with L3Harris to develop turbine hybrid vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL, aircraft that can handle crewed and uncrewed operations.
Jennifer Hlad contributed to this report.
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