DARPA said the test showed how AI could transform how fighter jets are engaged.
The US military conducted a groundbreaking test, pitting a manned jet against an artificial intelligence-controlled F-16. The AI-controlled two-seater F-16D X-62A is also known as the Variable-stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA). According to The Verge, the in-air dogfight took place last year but the update was released by the US Air Force and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. The US military said that the tests showed how machine learning might transform the way in which fighter aircraft are engaged in warfare.
Watch the video of the dogfight:
Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program achieves world first for #AI in aerospace. 7min video highlights how in-air combat tests between AI- and human-piloted F-16s @EdwardsAFB are transforming progress for human-machine teaming and trusted autonomy. https://t.co/NewcjI4UjP
— DARPA (@DARPA) April 17, 2024
The Verge said that DARPA started experimenting with AI in December 2022 as part of its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) programme. It worked to develop an AI system capable of autonomously flying a fighter jet.
Humans were on board the X-62A during the September 2023 dogfight with controls to switch off the AI, but there was no need to use the kill switch “at any point”.
“Both aircraft demonstrated high-aspect nose-to-nose engagements and got as close as 2,000 feet at 1,200 miles per hour,” DARPA said. It, however, did not reveal which aircraft one the dogfight.
“Dogfighting was the problem to solve so we could start testing autonomous artificial intelligence systems in the air. Every lesson we’re learning applies to every task you could give to an autonomous system,” the outlet quoted Bill Gray, the chief test pilot at the Air Force’s Test Pilot School, as saying in a statement.
The ACE program, started in December 2022, has conducted 21 test flights, resulting in over 100,000 lines of flight-critical software changes, Newsweek said.
Frank Kendall, secretary of the US Air Force, had told the US Senate that they plan to launch “an autonomously flown F-16 later this year,” in which there will be a pilot just watching as the technology works. “Hopefully, neither he nor I will be needed to fly the airplane,” Kendall said.