DARPA's AI Fighter Jet Program Enters Phase Two
The Pentagon’s advanced research arm, DARPA, has confirmed that its Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) program, designed to develop highly autonomous fighter jets capable of multi-ship operations beyond visual range, is moving into its crucial second phase. This progression marks a significant step towards a future where human pilots may share the skies, and potentially command, with sophisticated AI-driven aerial combatants.
The AIR program builds upon insights gained from DARPA’s earlier Air Combat Evolution (ACE) trials, which notably pitted AI-piloted F-16 fighter jets against human aviators in simulated dogfights. While ACE demonstrated the AI’s ability to engage in close-quarters combat, AIR aims to elevate this autonomy to a strategic level, enabling uncrewed F-16s to operate cohesively and tactically as part of larger formations, even when human oversight is not direct or immediate.
The recent advancement was signaled by an $11.3 million contract modification awarded to Systems & Technology Research (STR) on Wednesday. This funding, designated for “Option One” of the AIR program, officially transitions the project into its second of two phases. STR is specifically tasked with developing the sophisticated AI-driven algorithms necessary for “real-time distributed autonomous tactical execution within uncertain, dynamic, and complex operational environments”—essentially, creating the brains for these autonomous aircraft to make split-second decisions and coordinate effectively in the chaos of aerial combat.
Beyond STR’s work on tactical execution, the AIR program also focuses on a second critical technical area: the creation of agile and precise models that can account for uncertainty in combat scenarios and automatically improve their performance through continuous data assimilation. The program’s overarching goal is to integrate these advanced AI capabilities with existing sensor, electronic warfare, and weapons technologies. Testing protocols are set to proceed through rigorous simulations, followed by human-supervised evaluations, before culminating in benchmarks involving uncrewed combat aerial vehicles.
While STR’s role in the second phase is now clear, the full roster of participants for this advanced stage remains undisclosed. Other defense giants like Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems have previously been tapped for the AIR program, but DARPA has indicated that source selection for the next phase is ongoing and details on other awardees cannot yet be divulged. The program itself is shrouded in a degree of secrecy, with DARPA confirming only that the transition from phase one to two is underway and that the upcoming phase is projected to last approximately 30 months. The long-term implications of such technology are profound, raising questions about the future roles of human fighter pilots and the evolving ethical landscape of autonomous warfare.