U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall flew in the front seat of the X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) on May 2 during an autonomous flight from Edwards AFB, Calif., the Air Force said on May 3.
Starting in December, 2022, the Air Force Test Pilot School ramped up X-62A autonomous flight tests through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, including those by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program (Defense Daily, Feb. 14, 2023).
“The potential for autonomous air-to-air combat has been imaginable for decades, but the reality has remained a distant dream up until now,” Kendall said in a May 3 statement by the 412th Test Wing at Edwards.
The X-62A VISTA autonomous flights have used Hivemind piloting software by Shield AI (Defense Daily, Apr. 17).
“Shield AI was happy to provide the ride, execute the mission, and get SECAF home safely,” Shield AI said on May 3.
Lockheed Martin [LMT] said on May 3 that its “open systems architecture,” used during the May 2 flight, “leverages Skunk Works’ Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS)” to permit “highly complex tests.”
The company said that it worked with industry and the Air Force Test Pilot School to install “live AI agents into the X-62A’s systems” to demonstrate “the first AI versus human dogfight” and required adaptations, including “100,000 lines of flight-critical software changes across 21 test flights.”
The VISTA, in service since 1992, is a modified Lockheed Martin F-16D.
“About four years ago the team set out to improve VISTA’s already unique test-training capabilities, which historically allowed it to simulate another aircraft’s flying characteristics,” the 412th Test Wing said on May 3. “VISTA’s initial capabilities were reimagined, reworked and fundamentally expanded, culminating in an upgrade that was completed in 2022 and featured three new highly specialized software suites with significantly more computing power to make it all work.”
The wing said that, during the May 2 flight, “the X-62A conducted a variety of tactical maneuvers utilizing live agents that responded in real-time to a simulated threat” and that the aircraft “completed a series of test points, which were parts of an aerial dogfight within an operation that validated the models and tested its performance.”
Dan “Animal” Javorsek, EpiSci’s chief technology officer and a former F-22/F-35 pilot and ACE program manager at DARPA, said on X that the May 2 flight test used AI agents by EpiSci, PhysicsAI, and Shield AI and that the “EpiSci team…flew a flawless high aspect set, demonstrating what trusted autonomy looks like to everyone.”
The 412th Test Wing said that “the controls of the X-62A remained untouched by both Secretary Kendall and the safety pilot in the backseat throughout the entire test flight.”