The Unmanned Little Bird demonstrator, which Boeing built from a civilian MD 530F, first flew on September 8, 2004, and made its first autonomous flight (with safety pilot) on October 16, 2004.

[2] The ULB Demonstrator first flew in the unmanned mode on June 30, 2006 from the United States Army's Yuma Proving Ground, flying a pre-programmed 20-minute armed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission around the facility.

[5] The A/MH-6X is an optionally manned or unmanned aircraft which is a hybrid of the ULB demonstrator and the A/MH-6M mission-enhanced Little Bird which is used by US Army Special Operations Command.

[12] In October 2010 Saudi Arabia requested 36 AH-6i aircraft with related equipment and weapons from the United States through a Foreign Military Sale.

The aircraft flew autonomously for 25 minutes to demonstrate the unmanned system's capabilities that can be integrated into Army MD 500 Defender helicopters.

[20] In September 2013, Aurora Flight Sciences and Boeing offered the H-6U Little Bird for the U.S. Marine Corps unmanned lift intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capability competition.

Boeing, working as a subcontractor, was flying the Little Bird without human input, but with a pilot on board to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations during testing near Manassas, Virginia.

Autonomous landing without the need for remote control or tele-operation reduces operator burden and allows them be resupplied or conduct other missions like medical evacuation around the clock.

[22] The Office of Naval Research selected Aurora Flight Sciences and the Unmanned Little Bird to complete development of the prototype AACUS system over Lockheed and the K-MAX.