Merlin Inc (MRLN) shares are flying high in extended trading Thursday after the company announced it had completed the critical design review for its C-130J autonomy program with the U.S. Special Operations Command. The milestone moves the company from design development into aircraft integration activities — a big step toward putting autonomous flight systems on large military planes.

The autonomous flight company said the review allows the program to enter a structured formal test campaign. In other words, they've cleared a major engineering gate and can now start bolting their tech onto actual aircraft for testing.

"Completing the Critical Design Review validates the architecture we've built for safe, scalable autonomy on large aircraft like the C-130J," said Matt George, founder and CEO of Merlin. "We are grateful for USSOCOM's partnership and guidance in this effort as CDR is another important step in demonstrating that our system meets the rigorous standards required for our USG customers' real-world deployment."

Merlin went public in March via a SPAC merger with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp IV. The company develops AI-powered autonomous flight software and systems for aircraft — think self-flying planes, but for military and eventually commercial use.

Shares were up 20.61% in after-hours trading, changing hands at $8.66 at the time of publication Thursday, according to market data.