May 4, United Press Internation During a relatively low-speed demonstration flight this week, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall was given a preview of the future by an AI-piloted experimental fighter.
The Air Force said that on Thursday at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Kendall was on board the VISTA X-62A experimental craft, which demonstrated its autonomous capabilities by performing a number of tactical movements in response to simulated aerial threats.
Kendall, together with a safety pilot, maintained a subsonic speed of approximately 550 mph throughout the demonstration flight, avoiding any human control of the aircraft.
The Air Force Secretary stated, "Autonomous air-to-air combat has been a potential for decades, but the actuality has remained a faraway dream until now." This is a pivotal time for transformation."
He said that when the AI-piloted X-62A and a human-piloted F-16 engaged in an experimental battle over the desert near Edwards last year at speeds nearing 1,200 mph, they broke through one of the biggest boundaries in combat aviation history.
Kendall explained to The Aviationist that artificial intelligence (AI) "essentially takes the most capable technology you have, pits it together, and uses it on challenges that traditionally had to be solved by human decision making." "Those decisions are automated, and it is highly targeted."
An experimental aircraft based on the F-16 fighter is called the X-62A.
To produce the variable in-flight simulation test aircraft, or VISTA as it is more often known, Lockheed Martin engineers are creating and utilizing specialized software that includes a model-following algorithm and devices for autonomous operation of the simulation technology.
"VISTA will enable us to concurrently develop and test state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methodologies with new unmanned vehicle designs," stated M. Christopher Cotting, the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School's research director.
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