The aviation of the future will be unmanned
In China, military engineers conducted a dogfight between fighter drones. One was controlled by a human operator, while its rival was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). As a result, electronic «brains» demonstrated overwhelming superiority in air combat at close range. “Artificial intelligence will soon become the king of the sky,” scientists told the South China Morning Post, after the robot demonstrated superiority in close air combat.
Photo: Global Look Press
At the beginning of the battle, the initiative was with the human operator, but the artificial intelligence apparently calculated his actions, after which he was able to carry out a deceptive maneuver and counterattack, approaching the enemy. The «pilot» attempted to dive down to cause the AI drone to lose control and crash on the ground. However, the machine figured out a deceptive maneuver, hid in an ambush and waited for the enemy to gain altitude again.
The human operator then tried several other tactics with the same result. After about 90 seconds of unsuccessful attempts to seize the initiative, the test was terminated.
According to Chinese developers, the next generation AI pilot will be able to learn during real flight and improve its performance with little or no ground support.
An era of air combat dominated by artificial intelligence is on the horizon, says a team of engineers from the Aerodynamics Research Institute in an article by Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica. Aircraft with autonomous decision-making can fully surpass a person in reaction speed.
“In connection with the development of stealth technologies (a set of methods for reducing the radar visibility of combat vehicles. — “MK”) and electronic countermeasures 25– 40% of dogfights in the future will be at close range. Research into combat at close range is of great practical importance,” the authors of the article say.