The Air Force Research Laboratory has developed and tested artificial intelligence software to fly an XQ-58A Valkyrie, an unmanned air vehicle manufactured by Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, as part of the Autonomous Aircraft Experimentation program.
AFRL test units carried out a three-hour sortie at the Eglin Test and Training Complex in Florida to assess the machine learning-trained AI algorithms developed by the Autonomous Air Combat Operations team, the laboratory said Wednesday.
The AI/ML algorithms took millions of hours to mature in simulation during sorties on the X-62 VISTA, hardware-in-the-loop events with the XQ-58A and ground test operations.
“AI, Autonomous Operations, and Human-Machine Teaming continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace and we need the coordinated efforts of our government, academia, and industry partners to keep pace,” said Brig. Gen. Scott Cain, commander of AFRL.
The test flight builds on four years of partnership with the Skyborg Vanguard initiative.
