1- On July 2, the F/A-18 (shown above) performed dozens of arrested landings without any input from the pilot in the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Capes.
2- ...the jet wasn’t controlled by someone in the carrier the way current drones are controlled from ground stations.
3- .. this jet ,received a command from the carrier’s air traffic control to enter the landing pattern and execute the landing all on its own; the same way a piloted jet would.
4- “Once he’s on his approach, we actually take (automatic) control of the aircraft via the systems we have installed (on the a/c) as part of the demo and actually the aircraft is controlled by flight [rules] we put in place, all the way down to trap,”... “There is no remote control of the aircraft, there is no pilot control of the aircraft; we’ve given it instructions and it executes those instructions.”