US Air Force stages dogfights with AI-piloted fighter jet

An fighter jet took on an F-16 in the first-ever dogfights powered by artificial intelligence, the Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced.

And the success of efforts to bring the X-62A VISTA into aerial combat training could help the Air Force further refine its plans for autonomous drone wingmen known as jets collaborative combat, officials told reporters Friday.

VISTA, which stands for Variable In-flight Simulator Aircraft, is a heavily modified F-16 operated by the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The service has used it for more than three decades to test cutting-edge aerospace technologies and, in recent years, to test autonomous flight capabilities.

DARPA's Air Combat Evolution, or ACE, program has been working for four years to refine how the military can use AI for aerial warfare and to build aviators' confidence that autonomous technology can operate from safe and reliable way in combat.

Until now, the military has used autonomy for aspects of flight that are predictable and based on a known set of rules, such as the automatic ground collision avoidance system that prevents jets such as the F-35 from crashing. But visual range dogfights, perhaps the most dangerous and unpredictable form of flight a pilot can engage in, represent an entirely different set of skills for AI to learn, Col. James said Valpiani, commander of the Air Force test pilot school.

Aerial combat represents a very important challenge to the question of confidence in autonomy, Valpiani said. This is inherently very dangerous. This is one of the most difficult skills military aviators must master.

The ACE program began by having AI agents control simulated F-16s in dogfights in computers. These AI-simulated F-16s scored five to five against human pilots, DARPA said in a video posted online. But they were not yet trained to follow safety guidelines, including those that prevent a pilot from crashing the plane, as well as other ethical requirements such as combat training rules and combat engagement zones. weapons.

In December 2022 and April 2023, the Air Force and DARPA began live flight tests with AI agents piloting VISTA. And in September 2023, it was time for VISTA to face a human pilot.

Over two weeks, VISTA flew against an F-16 in various scenarios, including situations where it started at a disadvantage to the human-piloted jet. VISTA began by flying defensively to build confidence in the safety of its flights, before moving on to intense offensive maneuvers. Valpiani said the planes were flying aggressively at speeds up to 1,200 miles per hour and within 2,000 feet of each other, including performing nose-to-nose passes and vertical maneuvers.

William Gray, chief test pilot at the Air Force Test Pilot School, and other engineers perform software updates on the X-62 VISTA jet at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Aug. 3, 2022 (Photo Giancarlo Casem/Air Force)

Two pilots were in VISTA's cockpit to monitor its systems and switch between different AI agents to test their performance, but they never had to take charge of the flight. VISTA carried out 21 test flights between December 2022 and September 2023.

Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, DARPA's ACE program manager, and Valpiani said the AI-driven VISTA worked well and tested a variety of agents with multiple different capabilities. But they refused to say how many times VISTA beat the human-piloted F-16.

The goal of the test was to demonstrate that we can safely test these AI agents in a safety-critical air combat environment, Hefron said.

Hefron and Valpiani said the ACE program learned multiple lessons from air combat testing, including how to quickly adapt AI software and upload it to the aircraft, sometimes while it was already in flight. flight.

Hefron said the program next plans to hold more VISTA versus F-16 matches to refine the technology and test different scenarios.

They declined to say whether the ACE program's air combat efforts could one day lead to a future fleet of fighters without pilots in the cockpit, saying such questions of long-term vision are better suited to Air Force leaders. But Valpiani noted that developments such as Auto-GCAS have not replaced pilots who must be continually aware of their terrain and only serve as backup safety.

And the lessons learned from ACE could apply to much more than just dogfights, they said. ACE will enable the service to create unmanned CCAs capable of flying autonomously alongside crewed fighters such as the F-35 and the Next-Generation Air Dominance platform, carrying out missions such as airstrikes and operations of recognition.

DARPA's X-62A program and ACE program are not primarily about dogfights, Hefron said. It's really about building trust in responsible AI. The main takeaway from our September event is that we can do it safely and efficiently.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is confident enough in the progress of the ACE program that he plans to soon fly as a passenger aboard the AI-operated VISTA. DARPA and the Air Force declined to say more specifically when Kendall will fly at VISTA.

There will be a pilot with me who will just watch, as I do, how autonomous technology works, Kendall told senators at an April 9 budget hearing. I hope neither he nor I will be needed to fly the plane.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues on Air Force Times and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare on Military.com. He traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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