Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor, has produced some of the most advanced platforms for the U.S. military. It announced last week that it had been awarded a $4.6 million contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools for dynamic, airborne missions as part of its Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) program that was first unveiled in November 2022.
Lockheed Martin will provide advanced Modeling and Simulation (M&S) approaches and dominant AI agents for live, multi-ship, beyond visual range (BVR) missions. It is a critical step in prioritizing and investing in breakthrough technologies for national security and to meet customers’ evolving needs.
“In complex airborne missions, our customers need access to advanced technologies that connect critical systems quickly across all domains,” said Gaylia Campbell, vice president of Engineering and Technology for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.
Lockheed and DARPA Take to the AIR
The defense contractor explained that DARPA’s AIR program is meant to enhance and improve the government-provided baseline models’ speed and predictive performance to better match how the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) systems perform in the real world.
Over 18 months of performance, Lockheed Martin will apply AI and Machine Learning (ML) techniques that will be employed to create surrogate models of various aircraft, sensors, electronic warfare, and weapons within dynamic and operationally representative environments.
“The DARPA AIR program will use state-of-the-art scientific ML technology and Lockheed Martin’s ARISE infrastructure to deliver unprecedented amounts of data that service members can use to make faster and more informed decisions,” Campbell added. “This will provide significant cost savings opportunities for the Department of Defense and serve as a foundation for future AI defense solutions, ensuring the U.S. and its allies maintain their competitive advantage no matter the circumstances.”
The contractor has noted its long history of successfully developing and integrating AI and ML technologies into its products and services.
“This is part of our 21st Century Security vision, which aims to build a more advanced, resilient and collaborative defense industry, so we can deliver more cutting-edge capabilities faster and more affordably to the United States and our allies,” Lockheed Martin further noted in a statement.
The AIR ACE
According to DARPA, the AIR program’s autonomy solutions will initially be developed and demonstrated on manned F-16 testbeds before being transferred to an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV).
The research and development agency’s AI effort will expand on the within-visual-range (WVR) autonomous capabilities developed and demonstrated under its Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program for manned F-16s, moving to the BVR domain and demonstrating capabilities on uncrewed aircraft.
“AIR will develop advanced modeling and simulation approaches and dominant AI agents for live BVR missions,” DARPA explained on its website. ACE is just one of more than six hundred Pentagon that are incorporating AI.
As reported in February 2023, a highly modified F-16 – known as the X-62A or VISTA (Variable In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft) – successfully flew for more than 17 hours in early December 2022 at the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), California. Throughout multiple flights conducted over several days, the tests demonstrated how AI agents can control a full-scale fighter jet.
