An AI flew a fighter jet for more than 17 hours completely autonomously. An experiment in a series of tests that aim to accelerate the development of drones, and revolutionize the form of air superiority.
Seventeen hours ! This is the duration of flight time that the VISTA X-62A aircraft performed last December. A long flight time, but achievable since there is in-flight refueling. The difference of this flight from a modified version of an F-16D was the absence of a pilot on board. For the first time in history, in December 2022, a real fighter aircraft was piloted entirely by an AI during a long period of intensive testing. The will of the project around the VISTA aircraft is to allow ” to parallel the development and testing of advanced artificial intelligence techniques with a new unmanned vehicle design said Dr. Christopher Cotting, director of research at the US Air Force Test Pilot School, in a statement.
Although based on a known cabin – an F-16D Block 30 from the 80s, upgraded with newer avionics (Block 40 generation) – this aircraft is one of a kind. THE Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft or VISTA (Variable Flight Simulation Test Aircraft) of the X-62A generation is a prototype, the result of cooperation between Skunk Works, the more or less secret research and projects division of Lockheed Martin and the Calspan Corporation specialized in in civil and military tests (cars, planes, missiles, etc.). Old on the outside, it’s an electronic gem driven by the Enterprise Open System Architecture Mission Computer or EMC-2. A modular and scalable computing platform, colloquially called the Einstein Box (for its similarity to the E=MC2 of Einstein’s theory of relativity), which equips several combat platforms and supervises communications between aircraft or with the ground, etc. And which is now connected to an AI capable of flying the aircraft autonomously.
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Far from going into battle tomorrow, this platform is already dated – but not outdated: the Ukrainians would be very happy to have F-16s against the Russians! – is there to enable engineers and researchers to prepare future generations of autonomous aircraft and other drones. Because if VISTA is integrated into an F16, the AI is loaded with software elements allowing it to simulate the characteristics of other aircraft.
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For more information about the nature of the software, the type of electronics and the various technical secrets of the aircraft, apply to Lockheed Martin and sign with your blood non-disclosure agreements. And go to jail by sharing them with us! Because apart from the presence of Getac-branded tablet-PCs and a few acronyms devoid of interest (VISTA Simulation System (VSS), Model Following Algorithm (MFA), and others System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS) – no specific details have obviously leaked out. If the project is only at the research stage, it is however for the US Air Force nothing less than preparing the future of air superiority. A force that the US Air Force has held for decades, but that Chinese drone know-how could quickly render obsolete…
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
