AI-controlled fighter jet takes US Air Force leader for historic ride
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) — With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched
AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s
It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances.
Inside classified simulators and buildings with layers of shielding against surveillance, a new test-pilot generation is training AI agents to fly in war.
Kendall traveled here to see AI fly in real time and make a public statement of confidence in its future role in air combat.
“It’s a security risk not to have it. At this point, we have to have it,” Kendall said in an interview with The Associated Press after he landed.
The AP, along with NBC, was granted permission to witness the secret flight on the condition
that it would not be reported until it was complete because of operational security concerns.
The AI-controlled F-16, called Vista, flew Kendall in lightning-fast maneuvers at more than 550 miles an hour that put pressure on his body at five times the force of gravity.
Kendall said there will always be human oversight in the system when weapons are used.