You can be my Bing man anytime
Pentagon boffins have for the first time used AI algorithms to automatically control a real F-16 fighter jet mid-flight. Well, OK, at least for the first time they can talk about.
The aircraft flown in the experiment, dubbed X-62A or VISTA, was modified and equipped with the right hardware components to run the software developed under the Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program run by the US Dept of Defense’s science nerve-center DARPA.
Launched in 2019, the program’s goal is to revamp aircraft combat by enabling F-16s to automatically dogfight. DARPA envisions machine-learning algorithms assisting pilots with flying and perform tactical maneuvers, with our humans focusing on battle commands, strategy, and firing weapons. This work involves developing new software and models.
Last year, an AI agent beat a real US Air Force instructor in a virtual dogfight conducted in flight simulation. And in December, DARPA managed to use this new technology to help fly a real F-16 jet, closing the simulation to real-world gap.
Air Force Lt. Col. Ryan «Hal» Hefron, the DARPA program manager for ACE, said the AI algorithms were used during takeoff and landing to fly the VISTA aircraft. So, like a fancy autopilot, perhaps? Multiple test flights were conducted over several days at the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base in California last December.
