The Air Force is now adding AI pilots to combat-coded F-16s

The U.S. Air Force is officially installing artificial intelligence fighter pilots into a half dozen combat-coded F-16s, and the last of these testbed fighters just arrived at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to begin the modifications.

The U.S. has already been flying its heavily modified Block 30 F-16D, known the X-62 VISTA, with artificial intelligence onboard for almost four years now under Project VENOM, which is short for Viper Experimentation and Next-gen Operations Model.

The technology on the X-62 VISTAs is based upon AI pilots, or “agents,” as they’re known, that have already demonstrated their ability to dominate in virtual dogfights against human pilots in DARPA’s Alphadogfight trails held in 2020. 

And now, these AI agents are being installed in much more advanced and modern, fully mission-capable F-16s to undertake far more complex air combat operations, including two-on-two dogfights that will allow the AI agents to gain valuable experience coordinating with one another to defeat human adversaries. 

Project VENOM does require some physical modifications to these fighters themselves, including a new auto-throttle to give the AI control over the engine’s nearly 30,000 pounds of thrust, as well as a handful of other new instruments and components developed specifically to convert standard F-16s into full AI automatons. 

The transition to combat-coded F-16s is a significant one, as it not only offers the Air Force the chance to learn how to convert standard fighters into AI-piloted combat drones, but it will also give the AI agents more data to pull from in the fight, including a far more advanced active electronically scanned array radar and more. 

“Modifying the aircraft is the result of a rigorous design phase and brings us one step closer to testing autonomy on a fighter jet with real mission systems and capabilities,” explained Major Trent McMullen, the 40th Flight Test Squadron’s advanced capabilities division chief. 

By April 2024, the AI agents being trained to fly these fighter jets had already gone through 21 increasingly complex air combat operations, with rapid adjustments made to the autonomy software between each mission, resulting in more than 100,000 logged changes to the code in the span of just 12 months. The AI agent in control of the X-62 started by learning defensive maneuvers, before eventually moving on to offensive ones, and finally, offensive high-aspect nose-to-nose engagements against other fighters with real human pilots onboard. 

Related: AI-piloted F-16 takes on human pilot in ‘complex dogfights’

During these dogfights, the AI-piloted X-62 and its human-piloted F-16 opposition reportedly closed to within just 2,000 feet of one another at speeds in excess of Mach 1.5, all while staying within the confines of the exercise’s safety parameters.

Of course, dogfighting isn’t all this artificial intelligence is being trained to do, but it is among the most complex tasks a tactical aircraft might undertake, making it a decent measure of how quickly these systems are maturing.

But the AI isn’t just maturing when it’s in the air. 

“These simulations provide an efficient way to train the autonomy to learn complex air combat tactics.” said McMullen. “A specific scenario can be run 1,000 times and the variations and decisions made throughout that mission can be studied. We can then make recommendations to the developers on how to improve the autonomy’s behaviors and overall performance.”

In pictures released by the Air Force, we can also see three more F-16s being modified to allow the addition of new AI hardware, and in past releases, the Air Force said it’ll initially field six of these jets for testing.

Although we don’t know when the first combat-coded F-16 controlled by an AI pilot will fly, it’s all but certain to happen soon within this year. 

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