FLYING Magazine
Just a few months after Textron Aviation announced its first military order for the Cessna 408 SkyCourier, the manufacturer on Monday unveiled a SkyCourier UX concept aircraft that would pair the twin turboprop with autonomous aviation software for a variety of military logistics missions.
According to Textron, the design, presented this week at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, would be for mission profiles that fit somewhere between those of small tactical cargo drones and large military transport aircraft. It is intended to improve cargo accessibility, maximize usable volume, and support operations from austere locations.
“Not every logistics mission requires a large airlifter, and many autonomous cargo systems lack the payload capability required for operational sustainment missions,” Textron said in a news release Monday.
The announcement comes amid rising interest among militaries for aircraft that could more safely and efficiently sustain forces and conduct logistics in regions such as the Indo-Pacific, where operations are spread across hundreds of miles of ocean. Textron said the SkyCourier UX was devised in response to that interest. It is being explored to address logistical challenges when normal supply routes are constrained or unavailable.
“Military planners are increasingly focused on how to sustain forces across distributed and contested operational environments,” said Bob Gibbs, vice president of Textron Aviation Defense and special mission sales. “The Cessna SkyCourier UX concept reflects our commitment to examining practical solutions to real-world mission challenges by leveraging real, certified products with innovative adaptation.”
More on the SkyCourier UX
Textron described the UX as a “light lift,” medium payload, fixed-wing aircraft with the ability to take off and land on unimproved runways, creating a “new, cost-efficient, and scalable approach” to aerial logistics.
The concept would be able to carry approximately 6,000 pounds of payload and accommodate up to three LD3 standard air cargo containers, which typically fly on widebody commercial jets. Textron said that “design concepts under evaluation” include a forward-loading cargo system that would provide direct access through a large nose opening, adding more volume than a traditional cockpit. It could also be integrated with cargo-loading systems and have the ability to “kneel down,” or lower its nose closer to the ground.
According to Textron, potential applications may include hub-and-spoke distribution, delivery of medical supplies or repair parts, and sustainment of military bases that are mobile, remote, or located on islands. It is intended as an “additional option” for final-leg transportation, complementing rather than replacing core fleets.
The SkyCourier platform would be paired with Merlin Pilot, the aircraft-agnostic, autonomous aviation software of Boston-based Merlin Labs. Pilot is designed for retrofits of both military and commercial cargo aircraft, using artificial intelligence and an array of sensors and cameras to handle takeoff, landing, in-flight navigation, systems management, and hazard awareness. It uses voice and natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to communicate with air traffic control.
The idea of Pilot is to minimize crew workload and allow personnel to focus on flying. Initially, Merlin is focused on enabling reduced-crew operations, but it believes that Pilot-equipped aircraft could eventually fly fully uncrewed.
According to Matt George, founder and CEO of Merlin, Pilot has already conducted hundreds of autonomous flights on Cessna Caravans, Beechcraft King Airs, and other aircraft. In George’s words, the SkyCourier UX is designed to “explore what an aircraft could look like when it’s designed around autonomy and cargo instead of a crew.”
Textron said the concept, built around the FAA-certified Cessna 408, will “provide a practical foundation for evaluating future autonomous and pilot-optional logistics capabilities.”
The SkyCourier UX is being publicly showcased for the first time at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Monday through Wednesday.
Market for Military Autonomy
Manufacturers such as Textron are seizing on an opportunity created by federal government incentives.
The Pentagon’s record $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal year 2027 includes $53.6 billion for autonomy, drone platforms, and contested logistics. It also calls for a $54.6 billion allocation to the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG), which was allocated just $225.9 million in the previous year’s budget. The DAWG is intended to handle much of the military’s drone and autonomous vehicle efforts.
In 2025, for example, the U.S. Air Force revealed plans to test a Cessna Caravan equipped with Merlin competitor Reliable Robotics’ autonomy system. It intends to deploy the autonomous Caravan on real-world overseas missions in the Indo-Pacific, Reliable told FLYING. The Air Force is exploring a range of concepts for contested logistics under its Agile Combat Employment (ACE) effort, which seeks low-cost, attritable aircraft for operations in the Indo-Pacific.
In April, Bell and Sikorsky won contracts to develop and prototype autonomous cargo helicopters for the Marine Corps’ Aerial Resupply Vehicle-Expeditionary Logistics (MARV-EL) program. MARV-EL seeks to fill the gap between small tactical drones and large airlifters with uncrewed aircraft, which could carry a logistics payload between 1,300 and 2,500 pounds over a radius of 100 nm.
MARV-EL is itself part of Naval Air Systems Command’s broader Unmanned Logistics Systems-Air (ULS-A) initiative, which is separately exploring the TRV-150 Tactical Resupply UAS (TRUAS) for shore-to-ship, ship-to-ship, and ship-to-shore capability. ULS-A also comprises Blue Water, a program to develop and demonstrate autonomous long-range UAS logistics capable of operating between Navy and Military Sealift Command ships.
Another commercial manufacturer, Elroy Air, this year received a $46 million Army contract to develop its Chaparral UAS for “modular multi-mission payload delivery…in contested, austere environments.”
Airbus is developing the MQ-72C Lakota Connector—an uncrewed, optionally piloted version of the UH-72 Lakota—for testing under the Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector program as a longer-range, higher-capacity option.