Mentre USA e Cina gettano le basi per i rispettivi progetti di caccia di sesta generazione, la DARPA – l’agenzia governativa statunitense per la progettazione di nuove tecnologie militari – segnala i primi progressi dell’ambizioso programma ACE.

The ACE program seeks to increase trust in combat autonomy by using human-machine collaborative dogfighting as its challenge problem. This also serves as an entry point into complex human-machine collaboration. ACE will apply existing artificial intelligence technologies to the dogfight problem in experiments of increasing realism.

ACE creates a hierarchical framework for autonomy in which higher-level cognitive functions (e.g., developing an overall engagement strategy, selecting and prioritizing targets, determining best weapon or effect, etc.) may be performed by a human, while lower-level functions (i.e., details of aircraft maneuver and engagement tactics) is left to the autonomous system.

In particolare, a febbraio la DARPA ha annunciato di aver completato nel dicembre scorso diversi voli di un F16, modificato in modo da essere pilotato da una Intelligenza Artificiale.

In early December 2022, ACE algorithm developers uploaded their AI software into a specially modified F-16 test aircraft known as the X-62A or VISTA (Variable In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft), at the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and flew multiple flights over several days. The flights demonstrated that AI agents can control a full-scale fighter jet and provided invaluable live-flight data.

E pensare che solo 70 anni fa il massimo a cui si poteva aspirare su un jet transonico era calcolare la velocità con un computer analogico pieno di tubi, sincronizzatori e ingranaggi, per un totale di quasi 3000 parti complessive: Il Bendix Central Air Data Computer (CADC) utilizzava la tecnologia disponibile nel 1955 e veniva utilizzato su F101, F111, e sui bombardieri B58.

The Air Data Computer is an analog computer that determines various functions of the static pressure, total pressure and temperature. An analog computer was selected for this application because the inputs are analog and the outputs are analog, so it seemed simplest to keep the computations analog and avoid conversions. The computer performs its computations mechanically, using the rotation angle of shafts to indicate values.