Enlarge / A joint Department of Defense team executed 12 artificial intelligence, or AI, flight tests in which AI agents piloted the X-62A VISTA to perform advanced fighter maneuvers at Edwards Air Force Base, California, December 1-16, 2022.
(credit: U.S. Air Force photo / Kyle Brasier)

An autonomous jet fighter has now completed 17 hours of flight testing, including advanced fighter maneuvers and beyond-visual-range engagements, according to the United States Air Force. The X-62A Variable Stability In-Flight Simulator Test Aircraft, or VISTA, was put through its paces at Edwards Air Force Base in California during the first half of December 2022 in 12 different flight tests of the Air Force Research Lab’s Autonomous Air Combat Operations (AACO) and DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) AI agents.

“The X-62A VISTA team has proven with this test campaign that they are capable of complex AI test missions that accelerate the development and testing of autonomy capabilities for the DOD,” said Dr. Malcolm Cotting, the director of research for the US Air Force Test Pilot School.

The X-62 began life as a two-seat Block 30 F-16D and first flew in 1992, spending much of its time at the Air Force Test Pilot’s School at Edwards AFB. In 2021 it was redesigned from NF-16D—the N indicating it was a special test aircraft—to X-62A. Modifications made to the aircraft over the years allow it to simulate the flight characteristics of other fixed-wing aircraft, making it an effective training platform for human test pilots, as in the past, and most recently, AI pilots.