X-62A Nails 27 Autonomous Intercepts with Live Sensor Tracking
The tests used live infrared sensor data to guide 27 autonomous intercepts, showing how AI could handle time-sensitive combat maneuvers.
- On Tuesday, the Air Force Test Pilot School and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works announced completing 27 AI-controlled air intercepts against a live target using the X-62 VISTA platform during HAVE HEAT testing.
- During HAVE HEAT, the X-62A leveraged Lockheed Martin Legion Pod sensors to track a live T-38 aircraft, with the onboard AI agent autonomously guiding the fighter into tactical intercept positions.
- Crediting its "Supermassive" AI development framework, Lockheed Martin engineers completed full integration and ground testing of the AI agents in just three months, accelerating deployment timelines.
- These autonomous capabilities will inform the Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which aims to field drone wingmen that escort manned fighters while pilots focus on tactical decision-making.
- Future upgrades include integration of Raytheon PhantomStrike radar onto the test jet, providing new sensor and computing capacity to support multiple AI agents across next-generation military networks.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Air Force expands autonomous flight tests with live, AI-enabled intercepts
The Air Force and Lockheed Martin recently demonstrated an artificial intelligent agent autonomously flying a fighter jet using live infrared sensor data — a critical step in ongoing developments of AI-enabled combat. The service announced Tuesday that it conducted multiple flight tests in April at Edwards Air Force Base in California where an AI agent processed live targeting data and then controlled an aircraft to execute intercepts. The exper…
AI-Piloted F-16 Fighting Falcon Intercepts Crewed T‑38 Talon 27 Times in Landmark Test
The day when fighter jets will be able to fly themselves in an intercept position against an enemy aircraft are nearly upon us, after defense contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works announced the completion of a landmark test at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The star of this test was a former F-16D Fighting Falcon two-seater, originally known as the NF-16D, which back in 2021 was converted by Skunk Works and its partners into the ... (co…
U.S. Air Force successfully culminates dozens of air maneuvers with a combat aircraft fully controlled by an artificial intelligence system
AI-Driven X-62 Intercepts Crewed Jets in Test
The Air Force’s X-62 autonomous test fighter carried out multiple artificial intelligence-controlled intercepts of a crewed jet in a series of experiments earlier this year, the service said Aug. 4. A heavily modified F-16D, the X-62 is also known as the Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft, or VISTA. In the tests, it used Lockheed Martin’s Infrared Search and Track Legion Pod to demonstrate how autonomous aircraft intercepts might work,…
X-62A nails 27 autonomous intercepts with live sensor tracking
Artificial intelligence has taken another step from the lab to the cockpit. Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School have completed a series of flight tests in which an AI agent flew a fighter aircraft using live sensor data to locate and intercept another aircraft. The campaign marks one of the clearest demonstrations yet of a closed-loop airborne autonomy system. Instead of relying on simulated inputs, the AI processed data fro…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 89% of the sources are Center
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
