F-35 Uses AI for Rapid Combat ID in Test - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I remember my father, a World War 2 bomber navigator, telling me about how amazed he had been by the Norden bombsight, which combined precision optics, a mechanical computer, and the airplane's autopilot to make it one of the best bombsights ever made at that time. He also remembered that security on those was pretty tight; when they landed, the bombardier took the bombsight out of the aircraft to lock it in secure storage.

Now, in a development that would have really gobsmacked any of the old World War 2 guys, Lockheed has successfully test-flown an F-35 fighter with an artificial intelligence (AI) system that may greatly speed up target identification and acquisition.

Aerospace titan Lockheed Martin has flight-tested what could become a new artificial intelligence feature on its F-35 Lightning fighter, designed to identify unknown contacts for the pilot, the company announced this morning.

“The successful demonstration … marks the first time a tactical AI model has been used in flight to generate an independent Combat ID on the pilot’s display,” the company said in its release.

The Lockheed release was sparse on details of how the AI works, but it said that during a test at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada, “a Lockheed Martin-built and trained AI/machine learning model resolved ID ambiguities among emitters, improving situational awareness and reducing pilot decision making latency.” In a military context, “emitters” typically refers to radio-frequency emissions from communications systems and radars, as opposed to infrared or optical sensing.

Here's the best part: The taxpayers aren't picking up the tab for once.

Lockheed developed the system, which it calls Project Overwatch, on its own initiative using Internal Research And Development (IRAD) funding, rather than for a specific Air Force contract, a spokesperson confirmed to Breaking Defense.

That's good news.

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Lockheed is selling this as a 6th-generation update to a 5th-generation fighter. It's unclear as to whether the proposed F-47 6th-generation fighter will have a similar AI system. But what would be interesting to know here is to what extent the AI has any control, or even influence, over the decision to actually engage a target. Lockheed claims this system is doing nothing more than providing information to the pilot; the ultimate decision as to whether to engage is still in human hands.

Since the F-35 is a stealth fighter designed to engage adversaries from much farther away than the human eye can see, the pilot relies on software to turn complex sensor readings into easily identifiable icons. The more sophisticated the software, the more quickly and clearly it can present the information to the pilot, who can then focus on making use of the information to survive instead of making sense of confusing data.

I was never a zoomie, but personally I'd feel better being able to identify a target with a good old Mark I eyeball before shooting at it, but that's obviously not how aerial combat works in this high-tech age. If this new system - bear in mind that this is just one test of something new - can help with target identification in those crucial seconds, that brief span of time when whoever shoots first has a huge advantage, then fine; but we can hope all due caution is exercised to make sure that the final decision is in human, not AI, hands.

Editor's Note: With President Trump back in the White House, the state of our Union is strong once again.

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