“The potential for machine learning in aviation, whether military or civil, is enormous,” said Air Force Col. James Valpiani. “And these fundamental questions of how do we do it, how do we do it safely, how do we train them, are the questions that we are trying to get after.”
From more sophisticated systems like the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft to cheap kamikaze weapons, the drone had its heyday in 2023 — and promises, coupled with AI, to be a much bigger part of future warfighting.
Reducing cognitive overload on warfighters while improving “time to trust” for autonomous systems is a matter of design.
Air Force acquisition chief Andrew Hunter said the service anticipates somewhere between 20-30 competitors to build the drones themselves, and that a similar number of contractors are already part of a vendor pool providing autonomous technologies.
With AI still a nascent technology, VISTA's ability to churn through flight tests could be critical for the Air Force as it looks to start a Collaborative Combat Aircraft program as early as fiscal 2024.