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Ninthace
19th Apr 2024, 07:12
From the DT today
The US military has carried out the first ever dogfight between a human pilot and an AI-controlled fighter jet.

The computer-controlled F-16 jet took on a manned F-16 aircraft in aerial combat at Edwards air force base in California in September last year, the US air force has announced.

Travelling at speeds of up to 1,200 miles per hour, the two jets practised both defensive and offensive scenarios as well as within-visual-range combat, known as dogfighting. At one point they came within 2,000 feet (610 metres) of each other.

Footage of the nose-to-nose air combat released by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) shows the two jets weaving in and out of one another as they streak through the sky.

Called the X-62A Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft, or VISTA, the autonomous aircraft is a modified version of an F-16 that has been fitted out with an AI programme.

Since it was first built in December 2022, the jet has been taken out on at least 21 test flights, totalling more than 17 hours of flight time and the first time machine-learning has been used to pilot a fighter jet.

During flight, the AI algorithm on the jet analyses data and makes real-time decisions, a process called machine learning (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/08/ai-funding-uk-military/), that mirrors the way in which fighter pilots hone their instincts over years of practice.

Carrying out a dogfight between an AI-powered jet (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/04/us-air-force-ai-drone-jets-loyal-wingman/)and a human marks a “transformational moment in aerospace history”, DARPA said in a statement.



Is this in fact new information?

ORAC
19th Apr 2024, 08:19
Part of the DARPA ACE and AIR programmes. Existing threads below.

https://www.darpa.mil/program/air-combat-evolution

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2024-04-17

https://defensescoop.com/2022/11/21/darpa-calling-for-ai-reinforcements-to-bolster-us-air-combat-capability/


https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/621830-skyborg.html#post10477616

https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/652288-ai-combat.html?highlight=Ai+combat#post11418147

Ninthace
19th Apr 2024, 11:37
Thanks, I thought it must be old news and the DT was playing catch up.
Somehow I missed the thread.

Commando Cody
20th Apr 2024, 06:21
I wonder if AI fighter "pilots" have any instinct towards self preservation. You can do some pretty aggressive and potent things if you don't care if you yourself are "killed".

The second question I have is that these trials seem to be mostly gun combats. While exciting, gun battles have not been a major factor in A2A kills for decades. I wonder how AI does against humans in missile combat, WVR or BVR.

zzuf
22nd Apr 2024, 10:02
My experience is that AI always veers left, just anticipate and an easy tracking exercise.

langleybaston
22nd Apr 2024, 21:04
My experience is that AI always veers left, just anticipate and an easy tracking exercise.

Only in the northern hemisphere surely?

MrBernoulli
23rd Apr 2024, 07:34
Only in the northern hemisphere surely?
Are you making a glancing reference to coriolis force, LB? 😉

After many years of attempting, often not successfully, to get to grips with the darker corners of aviation meteorolgy theory, both in military and civilian aviation careers, I am left with the impression that coriolis is actually a French word that translates loosely as ... [cough] ... bovine ordure. 😂

I have always been left cold by the explanations given for the effect of coriolis force on climatology, and am content to leave the subject there. 🤣

LB, no offence intended, truly, just owning up to my personal limitation in that field of science. 😉

langleybaston
23rd Apr 2024, 07:50
Are you making a glancing reference to coriolis force, LB? 😉

After many years of attempting, often not successfully, to get to grips with the darker corners of aviation meteorolgy theory, both in military and civilian aviation careers, I am left with the impression that coriolis is actually a French word that translates loosely as ... [cough] ... bovine ordure. 😂

I have always been left cold by the explanations given for the effect of coriolis force on climatology, and am content to leave the subject there. 🤣

LB, no offence intended, truly, just owning up to my personal limitation in that field of science. 😉
No worries. Yes a glancing ref. but just joshing.
Dont think for a .moment I ever knew what I was talking about .........