While autonomous systems continue to develop with artificial intelligence, the defense industry of countries also gets a share from this development. The U.S. Air Force wants to spend about $5.8 billion for up to 2,000 pilotless AI-powered drones to operate alongside human pilots. In this context, we can say that artificial intelligence is moving towards air dominance.AI fighter jet fleet attack from the USA
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of the Air Force reported flying the 9.15-meter-long XQ-58A Valkyrie drone for three hours in a first-of-its-kind fully AI-controlled flight test. Now, the US Air Force is requesting approximately $6 billion to build a fleet of up to 2,000 Valkyrie aircraft; Each aircraft costs an estimated $3 million, much cheaper than human-operated F-35 or F-22 fighter jets.
Congress must approve the five-year project to build the drone fleet, which is projected to cost $5.8 billion over that period, with $3.03 billion in fiscal year 2028 alone. However, the US Air Force describes this project as an effort to develop a “Cooperative Combat Aircraft … capable of developing crewed weapon systems to achieve air superiority.”
The US Air Force states that artificial intelligence-supported Valkyrie unmanned aerial vehicles can be used to perform roles such as surveillance or resupply operations or to fight alongside human pilots. Within the scope of the project, Valkyries, which are designed for different tasks and supported with appropriate equipment, are mentioned.“Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles will be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment regarding the use of force,” a Pentagon spokesman said. Therefore, even if these vehicles work with artificial intelligence, they will need human approval to fire or engage the weapon.
The planned mission scope will reportedly be tested later this year in a mission assessing the Valkyrie’s ability to track and destroy an enemy target in a simulated scenario over the Gulf of Mexico. The experiment will also put the aircraft’s AI flight software into a dogfight scenario. The Air Force wants to contract with private businesses like Kratos or Shield AI to develop software and hardware components separately. According to officials’ estimates, it could take five to ten years to produce an AI drone capable of real-life aerial combat.
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