AI-powered fighter jet takes Air Force leader on historic journey

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) —

Under the blazing midday sun, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet took off with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of American air power. But the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: this F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence, not a human pilot. AND traveling in the front seat It was Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall.

AI marks one of the greatest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the Air Force has aggressively leaned into it. Although the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning an AI-enabled fleet of more than 1,000 unmanned combat aircraft, with the first of them operational by 2028.

It was fitting that the aerial combat took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager surpassed the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances. Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of protection against surveillance, a new generation of test pilots is training artificial intelligence agents to fly in war. Kendall traveled here to see the AI ​​fly in real time and make a public declaration of confidence in his future role in air combat.

“It is a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after landing. The AP, along with NBC, were granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition that it would not be reported until it was completed due to operational security concerns.

The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew to Kendall in ultra-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles per hour that put pressure on his body five times greater than the force of gravity. He came almost face-to-face with a second human-piloted F-16 as both planes raced within 1,000 feet of each other, twisting and turning to try to force their opponent into vulnerable positions.

At the end of the hour-long flight, Kendall emerged from the cabin smiling. She said that she had seen enough during his flight to trust this still-learning AI with the ability to decide whether or not to launch weapons into the war.

There is a lot of opposition to that idea. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that one day AI could autonomously drop bombs that kill people without further human consultation, and they are looking for greater restrictions on its use.

“There is widespread and serious concern about handing over life-and-death decisions to sensors and software,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned. Autonomous weapons “are an immediate cause for concern and demand an urgent international political response.”

Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used.

The military’s shift toward AI-equipped aircraft is driven by safety, cost and strategic capability. If the United States and China end up in conflictFor example, the Air Force’s current fleet of expensive manned fighters will be vulnerable due to advances on both sides in electronic warfare and space and air defense systems. China’s air force is on track to outnumber the United States and is also amassing a fleet of unmanned flying weapons.

Future war scenarios envision swarms of American drones providing a forward strike on enemy defenses to give the United States the ability to penetrate airspace without high risk to the lives of pilots. But change is also driven by money. The Air Force is still hampered by production delays and cost overruns for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will cost approximately $1.7 trillion.

Kendall said smaller, cheaper AI-controlled drones are the way forward.

Vista military operators say no other country in the world has an AI aircraft like this one, where the software first learns from millions of data points in a simulator and then tests its conclusions during real flights. That real-world performance data is then returned to the simulator, where the AI ​​processes it to learn more.

China has AI, but there is no indication that it has found a way to test it outside of a simulator. And, like a junior officer learning tactics for the first time, some lessons can only be learned in the air, Vista test pilots said.

Until you fly, “it’s all guesswork,” said chief test pilot Bill Gray. “And the longer it takes you to realize that, the longer it will take you to have useful systems.”

Vista conducted its first AI-controlled air combat in September 2023, and there have only been about two dozen similar flights since. But the programs are learning so quickly from each engagement that some versions of AI being tested in Vista are already outperforming human pilots in air-to-air combat.

The pilots at this base are aware that, in some respects, they may be training their replacements or shaping a future construction in which less are needed.

But they also say they wouldn’t want to be in the sky against an adversary that has AI-controlled planes if the United States doesn’t also have its own fleet.

“We have to keep running. And we have to run fast,” Kendall said.