US Navy taps GA-ASI for next-gen CAMP project

April 22, 2026, by Fatima Bahtić

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has been selected by the US Navy’s Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) PMA-281 for the Collaborative Autonomy Mission Planning and Debrief (CAMP) project.

The initiative is set to advance mission planning capabilities, AI model management, and autonomy workflows for autonomous combat platforms, culminating in a government-sponsored demonstration targeting a 2026 Fleet exercise.

The project will demonstrate the potential for extending PMA-281’s mission planning software framework to support advanced autonomy operations, including behavioral tasking, rules of engagement (ROE) configuration, AI decision thresholds, and comprehensive mission debrief capabilities.

The effort integrates with the navy’s joint digital autonomy range (JDAR) and joint simulation environment (JSE) to enable rapid testing and validation of autonomy-enabled mission profiles.

“This project demonstrates our commitment to delivering integrated mission planning and debrief solutions that enable effective human-autonomy teaming,” said Mike Atwood, Vice President of Advanced Programs for GA-ASI.

“By advancing collaborative autonomy workflows and leveraging government simulation environments, we’re providing the Navy with critical capabilities to rapidly test, evaluate, and deploy autonomous systems for complex operational missions.”

According to the company, the CAMP project will demonstrate key capabilities on the MQ-20 Avenger platform equipped with government reference implementation (GRI) autonomy, electronic warfare (EW), and infrared search and track (IRST) payloads.

In addition, this project advances operationally scalable autonomy by delivering enterprise mission planning, trusted AI governance, and accelerated digital validation to support autonomous combat aircraft.

The planned demonstration will showcase advanced mission planning and debrief capabilities for autonomy-enabled operations, integrated with navy systems and evaluated in complex, contested operational scenarios.

The effort will highlight how mission planning software enables behavioral tasking, electronic warfare (EW) and infrared search and track (IRST) employment, combat air patrol, and target engagement, with execution and coordination demonstrated via Link 16-enabled platforms, including F/A-18 Super Hornets.