How an Artificial Intelligence ‘Co Pilot’ Will Boost America’s Upcoming Sixth Generation Fighter
The U.S. reportedly conduced the first flight of its sixth generation combat aircraft near the end of 2020, which is widely speculated to be an advanced technology demonstrator, the first aircraft of the new generation are expected to enter service near the end of the decade.
These will provide the Air Force with a successor to the F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor of the fourth and fifth generations, and is a priority program for the Pentagon with widespread speculation that China could be first to field a sixth generation fighter. Several sixth generation jets are currently under development - including two and possibly three in the United States itself, the MiG-41 hypersonic interceptor in Russia and the Tempest in Britain among several others.
Unlike the previous generation, the aircraft will placed a lower emphasis on stealth capabilities as countermeasures against these continue to grow, and is instead expected to place a greater emphasis on electronic warfare. Among the new technologies the aircraft is expected to benefit from are hypersonic air to surface missiles, laser weapons, APAA guided air to air missiles and artificial intelligence (AI). The possible applications of AI on the fighter have been cause for considerable speculation among analysts, with some details having already been revealed.
U.S. Navy Sixth Generation Fighters - concept art
While limited applications of artificial intelligence can already be seen on some fighters, with the new Russian MiG-35 using a basic AI pilot assistant from 2019, the new U.S. Air Force fighter will have an AI co-pilot capable enough to take over flying and fighting in the plane to prevent the human pilot from being overwhelmed.
It its expected that, much like the Tempest, Japan's F-3 and future variants of the Russian Su-57, that AI will be advanced enough to allow the sixth generation fighter to be flown in both manned and unmanned modes. Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Will Roper, compared the “AI-assisted copilot” to the fictional fighter assistant R2D2 from the Star Wars franchise, which was capable fo taking over piloting, performing limited repairs and informing the human pilot of upcoming threats.
This kind of human-AI partnership which takes advantage of the strengths of both may well be what the Air Force is seeking to replicate. Even relatively basic AI ‘pilots’ can assist in communications, monitoring for threats, navigation and network security, allowing them to effectively advise human pilots. They notably have the advantage of being able to download thousands of hours of fighting ‘experience,’ which is potentially very useful if they are themselves forced to take over flying and weapons for combat, and the fact that they do not require life support systems or much space potentially makes them highly attractive.
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