HOW THE FUTURE OF UNMANNED MILITARY AIRCRAFT IS UNFOLDING

The integration of Tactical AI and machine learning in defence projects is enhancing the performance and portability of high-performance capacities across various military platforms

- MANISH KUMAR JHA

THE ADVANCED MILITARIES OF THE WORLD HAVE BEEN increasing efforts to develop trusted autonomy capabilities for their aircraft fleet. For example, leading the race is the US Department of Defense (DoD), working on several programmes to enable the operation of their in-service aeroplanes by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) software.

Showing the commitment and vision towards autonomous capability, Frank Kendall, the Secretary of the Air Force, recently flew in the front seat of an X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft in California. The concept called -VISTA-was tested at the Air Force base.

Interestingly, for the entire flight journey, the aircraft was not piloted and remained untouched. In fact, it was aimed to demonstrate various tactical manoeuvres under the control of highly specialised software to test autonomous flying and other advanced capabilities. The project was a result of further collaboration between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the US Air Force (USAF). This is dubbed as part of DARPA's Air Combat Evolution (ACE) programme.

At the core remains technologies called Tactical AI, a software product and a design philosophy to build highperformance capacities that are portable between platforms.

Another is the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts at Aurora Flight Sciences which are moving forward with developing an X-plane to demonstrate enabling technologies in speed and runway independence for future crewed and unmanned aircraft.