- The US military has not said who won the dogfight between the AI-controlled F-16 and the human fighter pilot.
- This is the first real-world test of its kind, and officials said the program is moving even faster than expected.
- Back in 2020, AI defeated experienced Air Force F-16 pilots 5-0 in a simulated dogfight.
The U.S. military has not revealed who won a groundbreaking real-world dogfight between an artificial intelligence-controlled F-16 and a manned fighter jet, citing national security concerns.
Officials will say only that this landmark battle went well. Lt. Col. Ryan Heffron, DARPA's ACE program manager, told reporters Friday that “things are progressing as fast as we expected, or faster than we expected.” “However, unfortunately we are unable to provide further details.”
The tests took place last September at Edwards Air Force Base in California, with the two aircraft flying at speeds of up to 1,200 miles per hour and practicing various dogfight scenarios. Footage released by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency showed jets maneuvering around each other in the sky, a step up from previous tests.
The AI-controlled fighter jet, called the X-62A Variable Stability Flight Simulator Test Vehicle, is an improved version of the F-16.
Col. James Valpiani, commander of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, said the plane's AI agents can be upgraded and switched between missions, potentially complicating enemy air combat.
“We were able to generate software changes overnight,” he explained, “while the aircraft was sitting at short range, ready to take off, and even while in flight. could be uploaded to the aircraft,” he added. “You can transition between multiple versions of the same AI agent during airlift and between battle sets,” he said.
The X-62A was manufactured in December 2022 and has since conducted at least 21 test flights.
Despite the historic nature of this moment, which DARPA has called a “transformative moment in aerospace history,” the U.S. military does not share the answer to the big question: who won. Officials were silent on details but emphasized how important the exercise is for future progress.
It's unclear whether humans or machines won this moment, but AI's track record in this field is impressive. Back in August 2020, the AI ​​took on a human operator in a simulated dogfight in which he won 5-0. It was a clean sweep, and the human pilots didn't even make a sound of a hit.
At the time, former U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force pilots told Business Insider they were not surprised by the results, considering the combat may not have necessarily been realistic.
Some argued that the AI ​​algorithms appeared to be accessing information not accessible in the real world and were operating in a trained combat environment. In many ways, it was more like a video game and less like actual air-to-air combat, with real aircraft merging and racing. They said the AI ​​would likely “crash and burn” in real combat.
But that was many years ago, and AI has come a long way. Heffron told reporters that the AI ​​has been run more than “millions, even billions of times” and that AI He said he trained the models for real-world battles.
Heffron and Valpiani also said that trusting AI is a key priority for the program, calling for the “responsible application of autonomy” and situations in which AI must follow explicit instructions and guidelines. emphasized.
Even during training, air combat can be dangerous. The test last September was based on previous experience in which AI agents piloting the X-62A fought simulated threats.
Heffron said there are unique differences between simulation and the real world, and problems arise when AI is trained for specific situations that cannot occur.
“It was something that we were able to collect data on, that we were able to analyze and understand to some degree, and that we were able to devise a number of new approaches to tackling that problem,” he said. Told.
In 2019, DARPA stated that “no AI currently exists that can defeat a human strapped to a fighter jet in a high-speed, high-gravity dogfight,” but warfare continues to evolve, especially when it comes to manned-unmanned teaming and combat. are doing. autonomous system.
That may or may not still be true – the military has not stated – but progress in this area is noteworthy.
DARPA said it “aims to automate air-to-air combat, allowing reaction time at aircraft speeds and freeing pilots to focus on larger-scale air combat.”