The Lockheed Martin VISTA X-62A, a trainer aircraft, was recently flown for more than 17 hours by an AI agent, representing the first time AI has been deployed in a tactical aircraft.

Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) is changing the face of air power at the US Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The VISTA trainer is being developed by Lockheed Martin in collaboration with Calspan Corporation for USAF TPS. Built on open systems architecture, VISTA is equipped with software that allows it to emulate the performance characteristics of other aircraft.

U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School Research Director Dr. M. Christopher Cotting: “VISTA will allow us to parallelize the development and testing of new uncrewed vehicle designs with the latest AI techniques. This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms. It will allow us to offer tactically appropriate abilities to our warrior.”

Recent updates by the US Air Force include an updated VISTA Simulation System (VSS) by Calspan and Lockheed Martin’s Model Following Algorithm (MFA) and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation (SACS). The SACS and MFA systems integrated together give VISTA new capabilities, enabling it to be used to conduct advanced flight test experiments that emphasize autonomy and artificial intelligence.