AI-powered F-16 takes US Air Force leader for a fast ride – while supporting technology to launch weapons | American news

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was so impressed after his flight that he said he would entrust the Air Force with the ability to decide whether or not to launch weapons into a war.

An AI-controlled fighter jet has taken a senior Air Force leader for a ride in a groundbreaking test flight over California.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall sat in the cockpit as the experimental F-16 jet, named Vista, performed lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 mph over Edwards Air Force Base.

It went almost nose to nose with a second human-piloted F-16 as both raced within 300 meters of each other, twisting and looping in an attempt to force their opponent into vulnerable positions.

Kendall’s flight was a further statement of confidence in artificial intelligence after the first known battle between a human pilot and a fighter jet piloted by AI last month.

Thursday’s flight lasted an hour and the US Air Force hopes to have more than 1,000 of the AI-controlled jets in the coming years.

“It’s a safety hazard if we don’t have it. At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall said after climbing out of the cockpit, grinning.

The pilots working on Vista want the first fleet to be ready by 2028 and say the programs are learning so quickly that some are already beating human pilots in combat.

The idea is that unmanned aircraft can launch a pre-attack on enemy defenses and penetrate the airspace without major risk to human pilots.

But the shift is also driven by costs, as the AI ​​planes are smaller and cheaper to produce.

The US Air Force continues to be hampered by delays and cost overruns for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter programme, which is estimated to cost $1.7 trillion (£1.35 trillion).

Meanwhile, China’s air force is on track to outnumber the US and is also developing unmanned weapons – although there is no indication yet that it has found a way to escape. AI testing outside a simulator.

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‘Concerns about life and death decisions’

Vista’s operators, who have flown it about 20 times since September, say no other country has a similar AI jet – with the software learning on millions of data points in a simulator and then testing its conclusions on real flights.

The real-world performance data is fed back into the simulator, where the AI ​​processes it to learn more.

Air Force Chief Frank Kendall was so impressed that he said he would trust the Air Force to decide whether to launch weapons into a war.

It is a controversial position. Arms control experts and humanitarian groups are concerned that AI could one day drop bombs autonomously without further human consultation, and are demanding restrictions on its use.

“There are widespread and serious concerns about ceding life and death decisions to sensors and software,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned.

Mr Kendall said there will always be human oversight when weapons are used.

The pilots who program Vista are aware that they may be training their own replacements, but would also be wary of going up against an enemy’s AI fleet themselves.

“We’ve got to keep running. And we’ve got to run fast,” Kendall said.