A dogfight between a robotic aircraft and an F-16 piloted by a human was conducted in the United States.
Recently, the Pentagon Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) reported that the robotic aircraft X-62A VISTA (formerly NF-16D) conducted a dogfight with an F-16 fighter piloted by a man. These tests took place at the US Edwards Air Force Base in California back in September 2023, but they were reported only recently, without specifying the number of victories and defeats for reasons of national security.
It should be noted that the X-62A is a deeply modernized two-seat F-16D fighter, prepared for testing and training of artificial intelligence (AI) ACE AI. According to DARPA, this AI algorithm, which can supposedly simulate the on-board systems of almost any aircraft, controlled the X-62A and for the first time in history fought in the sky, within visual range, with a human-piloted fighter. At the same time, although DARPA provides little information, certain conclusions can already be drawn.
As part of the Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, 2022 X-2023A test flights were carried out from December 21 to September 62. Since F-16s have been in production for over 40 years and have a proven track record, it is likely that this low number of flight tests is due to software issues, including the AI algorithm.
We had a lot of goals that we were trying to achieve in the first round of testing. Therefore, the answer to the question “who won?” does not necessarily reflect the nuances of our testing. The purpose of the tests was really to demonstrate that we can safely test AI in a dogfight environment
Lt. Col. Ryan Hefron, ACE program manager, said vaguely, adding that there are differences between simulated and test battles, not to mention real ones.
Moreover, judging by what has happened, there is not yet much trust in AI. The thing is that, for safety reasons, the flights of the “autonomous aircraft” were controlled by two pilots in the cockpit.
The ACE program has been in existence since at least mid-2019 and is considered promising. You can understand the Americans, because they have a lot of F-16s, both in service and in storage. In addition, if successful, there will be no need to close existing production facilities.
For example, in 2021 the Chinese gave a second life to the decommissioned MiG-19 and J-6, starting transform them into drones.
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