{"id":12621,"date":"2020-12-16T16:42:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T16:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=12621"},"modified":"2020-12-16T16:42:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T16:42:46","slug":"ai-copilot-air-force-achieves-first-military-flight-with-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/ai-copilot-air-force-achieves-first-military-flight-with-artificial-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"AI Copilot: Air Force Achieves First Military Flight with Artificial Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following was a press release by the U.S. Air Force on December 16, 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Maj. \u201cVudu\u201d, a U-2 Dragon Lady pilot assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, prepares to taxi after returning from a training sortie at Beale Air Force, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. This flight marks a major leap forward for national defense as artificial intelligence took flight aboard a military aircraft for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense. The AI algorithm, developed by Air Combat Command\u2019s U-2 Federal Laboratory, trained the AI to execute specific in-flight tasks that would otherwise be done by the pilot. The flight was part of a specifically constructed scenario pitting the AI against another dynamic computer algorithm in order to prove both the new technology capability, and its ability to work in coordination with a human. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Luis A. Ruiz-Vazquez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Signaling a major leap forward for national defense in the digital age, the Air Force flew with artificial intelligence as a working aircrew member onboard a military aircraft for the first time Dec. 15.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The AI algorithm, known as ARTU\u00b5, flew with the pilot, U.S. Air Force Maj. \u201cVudu\u201d, on a\u00a0U-2 Dragon Lady<\/a>\u00a0assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at\u00a0Beale Air Force Base<\/a>.\u00a0Air Combat Command<\/a>\u2019s U-2 Federal Laboratory researchers developed ARTU\u00b5 and trained it to execute specific in-flight tasks that otherwise would be done by the pilot.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The test flight was the result of years of concerted effort within the Air Force to apply cutting-edge technology to military operations as it competes with other world powers in the digital age.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cARTU\u00b5\u2019s groundbreaking flight culminates our three-year journey to becoming a digital force,\u201d said\u00a0Dr. William Roper<\/a>, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. \u201cPutting AI safely in command of a U.S. military system for the first time ushers in a new age of human-machine teaming and algorithmic competition. Failing to realize AI\u2019s full potential will mean ceding decision advantage to our adversaries.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

During this flight, ARTU\u00b5 was responsible for sensor employment and tactical navigation, while the pilot flew the aircraft and coordinated with the AI on sensor operation. Together, they flew a reconnaissance mission during a simulated missile strike. ARTU\u00b5\u2019s primary responsibility was finding enemy launchers while the pilot was on the lookout for threatening aircraft, both sharing the U-2\u2019s radar.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
A U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing prepares to land at Beale Air Force, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. This flight marks a major leap forward for national defense as artificial intelligence took flight aboard a military aircraft for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense. The AI algorithm, developed by Air Combat Command\u2019s U-2 Federal Laboratory, trained the AI to execute specific in-flight tasks that would otherwise be done by the pilot. The flight was part of a specifically constructed scenario pitting the AI against another dynamic computer algorithm in order to prove both the new technology capability, and its ability to work in coordination with a human. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Luis A. Ruiz-Vazquez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The flight was part of a precisely constructed scenario which pitted the AI against another dynamic computer algorithm in order to prove the new technology.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that in order to fight and win in a future conflict with a peer adversary, we must have a decisive digital advantage,\u201d said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen.\u00a0Charles Q. Brown, Jr<\/a>. \u201cAI will play a critical role in achieving that edge, so I\u2019m incredibly proud of what the team accomplished. We must accelerate change and that only happens when our Airmen push the limits of what we thought was possible.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

After takeoff, the sensor control was positively handed-off to ARTU\u00b5 who then manipulated the sensor, based on insight previously learned from over a half-million computer simulated training iterations. The pilot and AI successfully teamed to share the sensor and achieve the mission objectives.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The U-2 Federal Laboratory designed this AI technology to be easily transferable to other systems and plan to further refine the technology. Today\u2019s flight provided invaluable data for not only the team to learn from, but also ARTU\u00b5.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBlending expertise of a pilot with capabilities of machine learning, this historic flight directly answers the National Defense Strategy\u2019s call to invest in autonomous systems,\u201d said Secretary of the Air Force\u00a0Barbara Barrett<\/a>. \u201cInnovations in artificial intelligence will transform both the air and space domains.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Maj. \u201cVudu\u201d, a U-2 Dragon Lady pilot assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, enters the cockpit while a 9th Physiological Support Airman assists him at Beale Air Force, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. This flight marks a major leap forward for national defense as artificial intelligence took flight aboard a military aircraft for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense. The AI algorithm, developed by Air Combat Command\u2019s U-2 Federal Laboratory, trained the AI to execute specific in-flight tasks that would otherwise be done by the pilot. The flight was part of a specifically constructed scenario pitting the AI against another dynamic computer algorithm in order to prove both the new technology capability, and its ability to work in coordination with a human. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Luis A. Ruiz-Vazquez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U-2 Federal Laboratory is a 15 U.S.C. compliant organization established to bring together a \u201cconfluence of warfighter, developer, and acquirer\u201d vertically-integrated under the same operational roof. The lab has developed and been approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish the 20th Laboratory Accreditation Program in the federal government. It promotes \u201cedge development\u201d \u2013 a concept to develop new software integration on operational systems in a bounded, safe environment.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The historic flight with AI comes just two months after the U-2 Federal Laboratory team updated inflight software for the first time during a U-2 training mission. The team leveraged the open-source container-orchestration software Kubernetes, another military first.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following was a press release by the U.S. Air Force on December 16, 2020. Signaling a major leap forward for national defense in the digital age, the Air Force flew with artificial intelligence as a working aircrew member onboard a military aircraft for the first time Dec. 15. The AI algorithm, known as ARTU\u00b5,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,5],"tags":[60,53,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-12621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-aircraft-air-force-history","8":"category-military-defense","9":"tag-air-force","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-u-2"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/12-16-2020-8-37-25-AM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}