Air Force Taps Merlin to Refine Aircraft Autonomy

Company will lend its expertise to the military’s development of an autonomy government reference architecture.

Jack Daleo

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 04:04 PM ET

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Jack Daleo

The Air Force will leverage Merlin’s expertise to devise a blueprint for automating any military platform. [Courtesy: Merlin Labs]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Air Force is collaborating with private sector companies, notably Merlin Labs, to develop an "autonomy government reference architecture" (A-GRA).
Merlin Labs' new agreement focuses on contributing its expertise to define common autonomy standards, particularly for autonomous fault detection, recovery, and mission adaptation across military platforms.
The A-GRA aims to create a flexible, government-owned blueprint for automating military aircraft, ensuring interoperability and allowing "plug and play" autonomous systems.
This initiative is crucial for advancing resilient autonomous capabilities, reducing operator workload, and supporting future concepts like Collaborative Combat Aircraft.

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The U.S. Air Force is enlisting the private sector to help devise a blueprint for automating military aircraft.

Merlin Labs—the developer of a platform-agnostic, “takeoff-to-touchdown” aircraft autonomy system—on Wednesday deepened its relationship with the Air Force, which has contracted it to explore the automation of its entire tanker fleet. Under a new agreement, Merlin will lend its expertise to the Air Force’s development of an autonomy government reference architecture (A-GRA)—essentially, a blueprint for automating any military platform.