US Air Force conducts first XQ-58A flight piloted by AI

News, US August 6, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

The United States Air Force conducted a three-hour long flight of a Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned aircraft piloted by artificial intelligence. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) released a statement on August 2, 2023, saying that the flight took place at the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on July 25, 2023.

The three-hour-long flight used an AFRL-developed machine-learning-trained, artificial intelligence algorithm on an XQ-58A Valkyrie aircraft. The software has been under development for more than two years now by AFRL’s Skyborg Vanguard team under the Autonomous Aircraft Experimentation (AAx) programs.

Chief of USAF AI Test and Operations Colonel Tucker Hamilton said that “The mission proved out a multi-layer safety framework on an AI/ML-flown uncrewed aircraft and demonstrated an AI/ML agent solving a tactically relevant “challenge problem” during airborne operations.”

Hamilton added that “This sortie officially enables the ability to develop AI/ML agents that will execute modern air-to-air and air-to-surface skills that are immediately transferrable to other autonomy programs.”

AFRL’s statement highlighted that XQ-58A uses a set of algorithms that were developed using “millions of hours in high fidelity simulation events”, sorties using the Lockheed Martin X-62 Vista, a test aircraft based on the F-16.

“AI will be a critical element to future warfighting and the speed at which we’re going to have to understand the operational picture and make decisions,” an AFRL commander Brigadier General Scott Cain said.

*^{Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie system on launch trailer. (Image Credit: Kratos)}*

“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,” Cain added.

AI Wingman

The Kartos XQ-58 Valkyrie is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle developed by the Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division (KUSD). The plane was initially developed to provide wingman support to fighter pilots for the F-22 and F-35 fighter jets in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat scenarios.

The aircraft has been designed for stealth and speed. The XQ-58A variant of the aircraft used artificial intelligence to increase its precision and swift decision-making abilities for the aircraft.

Specification:

Length: 30 feet
Wingspan: 27 feet
Empty weight: 1,134 kilograms
Max takeoff weight: 2,722 kilograms
Cruise speed: 882 kilometers/hour
Range: 5,600 kilometers (approximate)
Service ceiling: 45,000 feet

The XQ-58 flew in 2019 for a successful test flight. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Defense provided contracts to the Kratos for its Skybord program that intends to integrate artificial intelligence into the UAVs. Some independent sources claim that the U.S. Air Force is set to acquire 1000 XQ-58 autonomous planes for its UAV wingman program.