Competition among superpowers leads to U.S. military investment in AI

Published on January 23, 2024



In July, a test pilot flew out from the Florida panhandle accompanied by a wingman piloting an aircraft capable of traversing 3,500 miles and carrying missiles that could hit enemy targets from far away. But the wingman wasn’t a person. It was an artificial intelligence system trained on millions of hours of military simulations.

The three-hour sortie of the XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrated the first flight of an AI, machine-learning aircraft developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, according to the Air Force. The aircraft doesn’t need a runway. A rocket engine propels it into flight, and its stealthy design makes it hard to detect.

But its true distinction comes from its role as a “loyal wingman,” a recently coined military term for unmanned combat aircraft capable of collaborating with the next generation of manned fighter-and-bomber planes.

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