AI-controlled US Air Force F-16 Fighter Jet: All you need to know

US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall rode on an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Controlled F-16 Fighter Jet over the Californian Desert. It was only last month that Kendall made an announcement before the US Senate Appropriation Committee's defense panel that he intended to fly this aircraft controlled by autonomous systems powered by AI. He flew to the Edwards Air Force Base, as per a report on Fox News.

The F-16 was controlled by AI called Vista and it flew at a speed of over 550mph. There were also two other F-16’s which flew besides this AI controlled jet which were piloted by air force pilots. The three aircrafts maneuvered and performed all other actions which are typical of a fighter aircraft.

While this may lead to cheers in certain quarters, it is strongly being opposed by many including the International Committee of the Red Cross which has expressed its concerns over ceding space to autonomous systems which can impact various humanitarian laws. Others have also pointed out that there could be ethical concerns which are attached to any AI controlled technology. Kendall stressed that human oversight will always guide these autonomous weapon systems.


The US Airforce plans to have over 1000 AI operated AI drones in its arsenal with its first one being operational by 2028. The Pentagon too had in March offered two contracts to several companies in this regard.

The Collaborative Combat Aircraft project is worth $6 billion and has seen top companies including Lockheed Martin and General Atomics among others bidding for the projects. Many analysts have already pointed out that the US is a bit behind in adopting autonomous weapon systems and aircrafts.

FAQs:

Q1. Where is the Indian Air Force’s Centre for Excellence for AI situated at?
A1. Air Force Station (AFS) Rajokri in New Delhi houses this important center for handling all aspects pertaining to Analytics, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks and Deep Learning algorithms. The center was inaugurated in 2022.

Q2. What is India's first AI Powered anti-drone system called?
A2. It has been named as Indrajaal. It has been developed by a Hyderabad based company named Grene Robotics.