The Air Force said months ago it was planning to run flight experiments with the unmanned system, and even though this Ghost Bat was housed not far from an Air Force base, it's unclear if the testing has begun.
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.
Michigan’s defense ecosystem and expertise makes it a special asset for production.
"The expectation is that these aircraft can be designed to be less survivable and less capable, but still bring an awful lot to the fight in a mixture that the enemy has a very hard time sorting out and dealing with,” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
The US Air Force hopes to develop and field autonomous combat drones that would augment piloted fighters “in the mid to late 2020s,” Andrew Hunter, the Air Force’s top acquisition official, said in August.
“The concern I would have would be on our ability to deliver on a collaborative combat aircraft system to complement [Next Generation Air Dominance],” said Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter. “It would limit our ability to dedicate people and resources to an aggressive effort to field that capability.”
C2 will be particularly important in scenarios where US forces are met with anti-access/area denial countermeasures potentially more suitable for autonomous aerial and ground systems.
The initial command and control gateway to earn a continuous Authority to Operate is changing multi-domain operations.
The “right solutions” for future conflict must have multi-domain capabilities and be intelligent and interoperable to communicate and transfer data between systems.
The B-21 and future sixth-gen fighter will operate alongside drones, but what will those unmanned aircraft actually do?
"What we want is something that can go operate with [the B-21]," said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.
"The DTTI has struggled to maintain momentum in recent years, but this new project may signal a renewed mutual interest in substantial progress for capability benefits," says Chris Bassler of CSBA.
Consolidate network monitoring, performance management, and fault isolation into a single, comprehensive solution.
"I won't say that it's not achievable" to transition Skyborg to a program of record, said AFLMC's Brig. Gen. Dale White. "I will just say that it has to be balanced with all of the other requirements we have across the portfolio to be able to do that."
"Future Skyborg experimentation events will explore direct manned-unmanned teaming between manned aircraft and multiple ACS-controlled unmanned aircraft," AFRL said today.
"It’s ultimately a political decision, and ... this demands a strong and fully staffed OSD," said Mackenzie Eaglen, of the American Enterprise Institute. "That doesn’t seem likely until much later this year."
UPDATED: To explain that LCASD program is done with flight tests. WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s low-cost XQ-58A Valkyrie drone has tested a new capability — launching its own drone — designed to boost its abilities to counter enemy air defense missiles and protect higher-value aircraft such as fighters and tankers. The Air Force Research Laboratory […]