Using hyperspectral (HS) technology, this paper introduces an autonomous scene anomaly detection approach based on the asymptotic behavior of a semiparametric model under a multisample testing and minimum‐order statistic scheme. Scene anomaly detection has a wide range of use in remote sensing applications, requiring no specific material signatures. Uniqueness of the approach includes the following: (i) only a small fraction of the HS cube is required to characterize the unknown clutter background, while existing global anomaly detectors require the entire cube; (ii) the utility of a semiparematric model, where underlying distributions of spectra are not assumed to be known but related through an exponential function; (iii) derivation of the asymptotic cumulative probability of the approach making mistakes, allowing the user some control of probabilistic errors. Results using real HS data are promising for autonomous manmade object detection in difficult natural clutter backgrounds from two viewing perspectives: nadir and forward looking.