United States Tests The Skyborg, An Artificial Intelligence Fighter Jet Drone

Drone jet tempur US Air Force (US Air Force)

JAKARTA - The United States Air Force successfully conducted a flight test of a combat drone equipped with artificial intelligence, last April. As a result, the drone can maneuver in the air.

This project became the success of the US in the development of an artificial intelligence program called Skyborg. Especially in developing new and autonomous software systems to accommodate the range of air defenses.

AI-based

Skyborg, the name of an Artificial Intelligence/AI program similar to Skynet – a similar program from the Terminator film, relies on a robotic control system called ACS. Cited from Popsci, the ACS stands for Autonomy Core System or autonomous core system.

Using the ACS, the US military is developing combat drones that can pair and fly with aircraft. Not only that, but Skyborg is also able to learn the process and develop his own abilities.

Initial tests of the combat drone project were conducted at Tyndall Military Base, USA. The previous location was also used for experiments on four-legged security robots developed by the military.

Before Skyborg was integrated into a human-controlled fighter squad, the military wanted Artificial Intelligence to master the basics of combat. And that basic development was the goal of yesterday's initial test.

The basics of flight that Skyborg wants to instill in Artificial Intelligence include the process of taking off, formation of flight, and landing. In addition, there are also some more complex activities. Like receiving navigation commands from humans.

As part of the test, the military also wants to find out if Skyborg is able to direct combat drones around the border area by reading barriers programmed based on GPS points.

Supervision was also carried out by the military by air and land. During the trials, the military did not fail to note the progress and progress achieved by Skyborg.

“We are excited about the successful early flight of the Skyborg brain system. This is the first step of a marathon of more progressive growth of Skyborg technology", said Air Force Program Executive for Advanced Combat and Aircraft, General Dale White, via Popsci, Saturday, May 29.

General Dale White also said that this flight is the beginning of a series of experiments that will continue to be carried out to develop the ACS and build trust in the system.

In a public announcement, it was explained that the development of the Skyborg program aims to create robots that can fly planes and carry out missions autonomously. And this program is admittedly much cheaper than manned fighter aircraft – such as the F-35.

Skyborg Program Design

According to General Dale White, the Skyborg was not designed to control a combat drone. This program focuses more on its function of creating and flying several combat drones at once with the same goal.

Not only that, but this type of AI will also autonomously direct combat drones to accompany human-controlled aircraft. Therefore, the Air Force also signed contracts with three companies to develop prototype combat drones.

According to the plan, the Air Force Research Laboratory plans to conduct more experiments with the Skyborg aircraft. The reason is, developing unmanned and independent fighter aircraft is an important part and becomes the AU's vision for combat in the future.