Cpt PB,
Concur, the article is a bit light on details...I went to the ASTRAEA webpage to get details, but nothing posted...
The important line that I read out of this was that the sortie was to test the 'detect and avoid" systems for unmanned platforms (drones). The only real way to do this is with a production aircraft.
That is really the basis of the article, but it does perhaps lead to the ATC self regulation direction...hard to tell.
"To test the system, fake objects to avoid were introduced to the flight computer" See I told you we could do this from the back!
