Shield AI, the startup defense technology company specializing in artificial intelligence technology to pilot aircraft, said that Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall will soon fly on the VISTA X-62 aircraft, a modified F-16 fighter equipped with the company’s Hivemind AI piloting software.
Kendall last week told the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee that he would be flying on an AI-piloted F-16, that will also include a manned pilot. Later in the week, he told reporters at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., that the upcoming flight will give him “a sense of how the autonomy actually functions and what kind of experience that is, and get some feedback on how far that technology has come.”
Shield AI posted on the social media site LinkedIn that it is partnering with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Test Pilot School on Kendall’s VISTA X-62 flight. The aircraft was built by Lockheed Martin
[LMT] and flew for more than 17 hours in December 2022 in one flight with the Hivemind software in control.
Kendall told reporters he has about “a dozen rides in high-performance airplanes.”
In addition to the F-16 test aircraft, Hivemind has also piloted a jet-powered aerial targeting vehicle, the company’s own V-BAT unmanned aircraft system, and three classes of quadcopters. Flight tests on more unmanned aircraft are planned for this year.