The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill would authorize a DoD/U.S. Air Force pilot program for tankers that use artificial intelligence (AI).
Under Section 345 of the bill, DoD Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer Craig Martell, Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante, and the future chief of staff of the Air Force would start the pilot within three months of the bill becoming law in order “to optimize the logistics of aerial refueling and fuel management in the context of contested logistics environments through the use of advanced digital technologies and artificial intelligence.”
The goals of the three-year pilot would be an assessment of the “feasibility and effectiveness of artificial intelligence-driven approaches in enhancing aerial refueling operations and fuel management processes; identifying opportunities to reduce fuel consumption, decrease operational costs, and minimize the environmental impact of fuel management while maintaining military readiness; evaluating the interoperability and compatibility of artificial intelligence-enabled systems with the existing logistics infrastructure of the Department of Defense; enhancing situational awareness and decision-making capabilities through real-time data analysis and predictive modeling; and addressing potential challenges and risks associated with the integration of artificial intelligence and other advanced digital technologies, including challenges and risks involving cybersecurity concerns.”
The provision would direct collaboration among the CDAO and the heads of U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Indo-Pacific Command “to ensure such pilot program aligns with existing operational requirements.”
The pilot program, if approved in a House-Senate conference on the fiscal 2024 defense authorization bill, would likely presage an in-depth look by the Air Force at unmanned tankers–a path forged by the U.S. Navy on its Boeing [BA] MQ-25A Stingray, which is to reach initial operational capability in 2026.
The Air Force plans to conduct an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) in fiscal 2024 on the service’s Next-Generation Air-Refueling System (NGAS) tanker–the formerly known KC-Z–to supplement the Boeing KC-46A Pegasus (Defense Daily, March 7). The AoA is to examine various attributes, including stealth, advanced protection systems, connectivity, and improved range/fuel efficiency that NGAS may need to operate effectively against high-tech adversaries.
Last month, Air Force Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, the head of Transportation Command, said that the latter would likely leverage AI to enable autonomous logistics (Defense Daily, June 6).
“I think the future for autonomous capabilities in logistics is wide open,” she told a Brookings Institution virtual forum. “I think about, in the future, do we need to have a crew in an air refueling airplane or an aircraft that’s just carrying cargo?”
In 2019, An Air Force for an Era of Great Power Competition–a report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA)–backed Air Force acquisition of small, unmanned, boom-equipped tankers.
The report said that KC-46As and KC-135s without fighter or defensive counterair support would have to operate between 800 to 1,000 nautical miles from China.
Under the CSBA concept, “KC-46A, KC-135, or lightweight, dedicated tankers would shuttle fuel from secure airbases to UAS tankers or optionally manned theater tankers orbiting at centralized offload points located just outside of the contested environment.”
“Shuttle refueling operations would help extend time on station for the UAS tankers,” the study said. “The smaller UAS tankers would disperse to refuel combat aircraft and other penetrating platforms in lower-threat areas of the contested environment, then return to centralized offload points to refuel again. This concept could help reduce fuel burned by the larger tankers and increase the number of refueling booms available to support air operations over a large area.”
“Providing air refueling one or two hundred miles inside contested areas would help extend the range and mission duration of penetrating aircraft, which would have a force-multiplying effect,” the report said. “Moreover, a smaller UAS tanker or the optionally manned theater tanker should be able to operate from a much larger number of military and civilian airfields in the Western Pacific compared to larger wide-body derivative aircraft. This could further improve the future tanker force’s ability to refuel a large, dispersed force.”