The U.S. Marine Corps plans to conduct field operations alongside a swarm of gun-wielding micro-drones, driverless cars and self-unloading supply aircraft, Marine Corps Times reported Tuesday.

Matthew Schehl writes a panel of industry experts discussed at the Sea-Air-Space expo how U.S. troops could trust autonomous machines and develop strategies for drones that will potentially remove the need for human operators.

“We need to optimize unmanned systems and think about to what degree we are going to allow these systems to be fully autonomous,” said Frank Kelley, deputy assistant navy secretary for unmanned systems.

Schehl added USMC will look to integrate machines that act independently after they receive a task from a commander.

The Federal Aviation Administration has collaborated with several other agencies and academic and commercial organizations to test an unmanned aircraft system detection technology at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

FAA said Tuesday it aims to evaluate the effectiveness of an FBI-provided “rogue” UAS detector system in some of the busiest commercial airports in the U.S.

“We face many difficult challenges as we integrate rapidly evolving UAS technology into our complex and highly regulated airspace,” noted Marke Gibson, an FAA senior adviser on UAS integration.

“This effort at JFK reflects everyone’s commitment to safety,” Gibson added.

The departments of Homeland Security and Justice as well as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Queens District Attorney’s Office supported the FAA tests.

FAA noted the Griffiss International Airport in Rome, New York, helped the agency plan the individual tests at JFK and provided a flight commander for the effort, which involved the use of five fixed-wing and rotary-wing drones.

The agency also partnered with CACI International to explore how a company-made technology can facilitate  identification and detection of drones flying near airports.

The International Space Station launched a pair of small NASA satellites Monday using a NanoRacks-built deployer system as part of an agency project that aims to demonstrate operation and networking of CubeSats in low-Earth orbit.

NASA said Wednesday each Node satellite employs the Android mobile operating system and is built with customized software and the Energetic Particle Integrating Space Environment Monitor technology designed to collect and transmit data.

Montana State University developed the Nodes’ EPISEM radiation sensors for the agency.

“The purpose of the Nodes demonstration is to test out the potential for using a network of small, low-cost satellites to perform complex science missions,” said Andrew Petro, program executive for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program.

“If we can demonstrate that any single satellite can ‘talk’ to the ground on behalf of a whole network of satellites, that’s a great tool for creating new, more affordable space mission concepts,” Petro added.

The Nodes were included in Orbital ATK‘s fourth cargo resupply mission to the space station in December.

The agency designed the satellites to autonomously identify which of them is best suited to manage the space data network and transmit data to the ground during the mission.

Ground controllers found both Nodes are in good condition and communicate when the satellites passed over a tracking station soon after they launched from the ISS, according to the agency.

NASA expects to start receiving scientific data from the CubeSats on Wednesday.