U.S. manned fighter vs. drone air duel

It is said that the US Air Force is developing an autonomous unmanned fighter aircraft and is expected to duel with a manned fighter in July 2021.

This is what Lieutenant General Jack Shanahan, head of the artificial intelligence center of the U.S. Department of Defense, revealed at an event at the U.S. Mitchell Institute. The U.S. Air Force Research Institute began developing autonomous unmanned fighter aircraft in 2018. Since the development goal was 18 months later, it can be estimated that development is still in progress as of June 2020, which is a bit behind the original plan.

According to the institute, the first step is to integrate the AI-powered function into the manned fighter and launch the service. The onboard aircraft is expected to be the F-16, not the latest model. Lieutenant General Shanahan is also clarifying that not all future-oriented technologies are successful, so he is paying attention to the movement of the automobile industry leading the way in that it develops autonomous systems.

Despite several billion-dollar investments, cars that are still fully autonomous under certain Level 4 conditions do not exist on the road. Related information can be found here .