Pentagon takes AI dogfighting to next level in real-world flight tests against human F-16 pilot
Officials provided an update on DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution program.
BY
JON HARPER
APRIL 17, 2024
Flight tests overseen by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force have demonstrated safe and effective employment of an autonomous fighter jet enabled by AI, including in “nose-to-nose” dogfighting against a human F-16 pilot, according to officials.
A few years, during DARPA’s AlphaDogFight Trials, algorithms went undefeated in computer simulated battles against a military aviator. More recently, the agency’s Air Combat Evolution program has been using a modified F-16 known as the X-62A VISTA (Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft) to put machine learning agents through their paces in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base, California.
A total of 21 test flights were conducted for the project between December 2022 and September 2023, the Department of Defense said in an ACE program update released Wednesday.
“Beginning in December of 2022, that was the first application of machine learning agents to control the flight path of fighter aircraft,” Col. James Valpiana, commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School, said in a video accompanying the update.
https://defensescoop.com/2024/04/17/darpa-ace-ai-dogfighting-flight-tests-f16/
