Swarm Aero’s Command and Control Software Successfully Completes Manned-Unmanned Teaming Exercises at U.S. Navy Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) 2026

Live fire missions saw single operator orchestrate multiple complex air and sea assets in a seamlessly integrated environment

OXNARD, Calif., June 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Swarm Aero (Swarm), a developer of large uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms, today announced the successful deployment of Legion, the company’s command and control (C2) software, during the U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command/U.S. 4th Fleet’s Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) 2026 event. At FLEX, Legion enabled a single operator to orchestrate heterogeneous air and sea assets in a full find, fix, track, target, engage, assess (F2T2EA) chain, ranging from exquisite systems on Group 5 UAS to expendable platforms within a unified operating environment.

“We’ve yet again shown the level of orchestration customers demand – a single operator able to plan and command operations with dozens of heterogeneous, multi-domain assets and diverse autonomy profiles simultaneously executing a mission,” said Peter Kalogiannis, CEO and co-founder, Swarm Aero. “FLEX showcased that Legion’s unique approach to UXS orchestration is operational and that we move fast to meet existing and emerging mission demands.”

Held in Key West, Florida, FLEX is USNAVSOUTH/4th Fleet’s premier experimentation campaign to evaluate advanced robotic and autonomous systems (RAS), addressing the challenge of patrolling vast maritime regions with a limited number of traditional naval assets. These Fleet Experiments focused on operationalizing AI alongside innovative multi-domain uncrewed platforms to accelerate the delivery of next-generation capabilities to the fleet. The event was attended by distinguished visitors, including Undersecretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael; Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command; and Vice Adm. John Dougherty IV, commander of Naval Air Systems Command alongside additional leaders from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, Joint Interagency Task Force South, partner-nation militaries, and various industry partners.

The FLEX exercise marks another successful demonstration of Legion’s ability to enable a single operator to command and orchestrate heterogeneous assets at scale across complex, multi-domain operations. This achievement represents a significant milestone in Swarm Aero’s growth and further validates Legion’s readiness to support and scale with increasingly complex Department of War missions.

“We made engineering and design choices around Legion’s architecture to enable mass control before Replicator or Project Overmatch were even announced, and those decisions plus years of heavy warfighter-driven iteration have enabled Legion to quietly race forward as the leading C2 for UXS,” said Oliver Palmer, CRO and co-founder, Swarm Aero. “Legion is highly intuitive, operators with a few hours of exposure can use this single interface to control full missions involving expendable to exquisite assets and leverage many different vendors’ autonomy products that we easily integrate. We’re incredibly proud of the outcomes at FLEX and excited for what comes next.”

Operational results for Legion within the FLEX exercise include:

• Unified control and monitoring of seven unique platforms and dozens of sensors through Legion’s Single Pane of Glass (SPoG) interface
• Showcased rapid integration timelines, demonstrating Legion’s ability to bring new autonomous platforms online in hours to days
• Executed an autonomous maritime operation chain from organic sensing and track generation through target handoff, engagement, and battle damage assessment
• Achieved 100% live-fire target hits (3/3)
• Demonstrated peer-to-peer multi-user operations afloat and ashore
• Enabled one operator to command heterogeneous UxS while maintaining vehicle state awareness, sensor feeds, and track management
• Proved Legion’s scalability from ISR to kinetic effects, supporting missions from maritime interdiction to live-fire engagement
  
  

About Swarm Aero
Swarm Aero was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Oxnard, CA with locations in Spokane, WA, Fayetteville, AR, and Washington D.C.. The team has extraordinary experience working with the Department of War to fulfill critical needs and requirements as well as decades of aerospace accomplishments across Scaled Composites, Blue Origin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Airbus, Archer, and others. The team has previously completed billions of dollars in contracts involving DOW, has built software platforms supporting billions of users, and employed cutting-edge AI in critical applications. Swarm is backed by leading venture firms including Deviation Capital, Silent Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Construct Capital, Coatue, MaC Venture Capital, a16z, and Founders Fund. To learn more please visit: https://www.swarm.aero/

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/50043e5d-e848-4d20-b431-7b9a0e8b981a