By Dean Murray via SWNS
The United States has achieved a world first by carrying out a real-world dogfight between an AI-controlled fighter jet and a human pilot.
The “nose-to-nose engagements” saw the dogfighting aircraft get as close as 2,000 feet at 1,200 miles per hour, reported the U.S. Air Force on Wednesday (17 April).
A manned F-16 aircraft took on the computer-controlled X-62A VISTA jet at the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California.
While traditional autonomy has been executed for decades, machine learning has been historically prohibited due to high risk and lack of independent control.
As a precaution, the X-62A is flown with safety pilots onboard with the independent ability to disengage the AI. However, test pilots did not have to activate the safety switch at any point during the dogfights over Edwards.
The program is being executed by the U.S. Department of Defense DARPA agency’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force (USAF).
The USAF say that it took less than a year for the teams to progress from initial installation of live AI agents into the X-62A’s systems to demonstrating the first AI versus human within-visual-range engagements, otherwise known as a dogfight.
“We have to be able to trust these algorithms to use them in a real-world setting,” said Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, ACE program manager for DARPA.
“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now. In 2023, the X-62A broke one of the most significant barriers in combat aviation. This is a transformational moment, all made possible by breakthrough accomplishments of the X-62A ACE team,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall, who will soon take flight in the X-62A VISTA to personally witness AI in a simulated combat environment during a forthcoming test flight at Edwards.
DARPA say all demonstrations of autonomous combat maneuvers took place in 2023 and are continuing in 2024.
