DARPA and the United States Air Force (USAF) this week announced that a fighter flown using artificial intelligence (AI) has successfully combated a fighter aircraft flown by humans in 2023. It is part of the Air Combat Evolution (ACE) project that aims to develop swatterbang fighter aircraft that operate with the help of AI.
Under the ACE project developed since 2022, a General Dynamics F-16D Block 30 Peace Marble Il has been updated with electronic equipment from Block 40 with it being given the code name VISTA X-62A. A human pilot was placed in the X-62A only as a backup in case the aircraft lost control. But when doing air combat with another F-16 aircraft, this pilot did not take over the AI tasks used by the X-62A.
So far 21 combat tests have been performed by the ACE project. DARPA, however, did not share the results of whether ACE successfully defeated human pilots. The results of the ACE test will probably be used to help the USAF's Skyborg project.
With Skyborg modern fighter aircraft will operate with several drones controlled by AI. The Skyborg will be sent as a support aircraft that can then be directed to perform risky missions for human pilots.